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In France, Parisians share bikes, but will they drive shared cars?

Paris’ progressive Mayor Bernard Delanoe looks into shared car program to model Velib, the successful system of shared bikes in Paris.

These days in Paris, it’s become commonplace and cool to use Velib’, shared bikes that can be picked up and dropped off at will at locations around the city. The brainchild of Paris Mayor Bernard Delanoe, the bikes cost only a euro per hour to use. The name Velib’ is a combination of velo, the French word for bike, and liberte. The Paris bike system was meant to combat pollution and congestion in the Paris city center, often clogged with traffic, with finding parking an exercise in futility worth of French playwright Jean-Paul Sartre. Fun and practical, the clunky, cute silver bikes have become a fixture on Paris streets, used by both busy French commuters and tourists to Paris looking for a cheap, green and healthy way to take in the sights.

Now Delanoe wants to progress to four wheels. If the flamboyant Paris mayor has his way, a new program would soon put 4,000 of the fuel-less vehicles on the streets of Paris and its suburbs. Autolib’ would mimic Paris’s widely successful Velib’ for bikes. The plan is scheduled to launch in about one year. But he is meeting with stiff oppositions from some in France who say that the shared car system in Paris would only make things worse.

Among Parisians who have fought the plan most are, oddly, members of the Paris’ influential Green Party. The cars that Delanoe proposes are electric, so pollution would be minimal. But the Greens claim that the goal of Paris should be to reduce car use altogether. Others worry about worsening the already notorious Paris traffic by putting more cars on Paris streets as those who don’t own vehicles use the shared cars.

Delanoe argues that the target audience are Paris residents who would otherwise use their own fuel-burning cars, or worse, buy their first. By putting lots in the suburbs, Autolib’ also would encourage occasional commuters to choose a gasoline-free alternative to get into the city. Not only would they save on gas, which is even more expensive in France than in the US, but they would not have to worry about parking in Paris. Like the bikes, the cars would simply be picked up and dropped off at hundreds of designated points around Paris and Paris suburbs. Some cities in the US and Canada have already experiemented with a similar system called Zipcar, run by a private company. Autolib’ like Velib’, would be run by the city of Paris.

In France, where being green has long been a part of mainstream life, and where nuclear plants provide 80 percent of the country’s power, the idea of putting more electric cars on the road has most Parisians agreeing, especially as Velib’ has been so popular.

But there are other complications. No one has decided what the rental costs would be, how to work out insurance, drivers’ licenses (could a foreigner rent a car?) or managing the lots, and then there is the issue of security. Some of Paris’ Velib bikes have been stolen and have been spotted as far away as Australia.

Paris’ progressive Mayor Bernard Delanoe looks into shared car program to model Velib, the successful system of shared bikes in Paris.

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