Skip to main content

Vélib Bikes | A firsthand experience of Paris' Bike Sharing Scheme

Micro-mobility has always fascinated me. Back in April 2019, I test rode various Yulus which left me amazed by the concept and the ease with which I could get across town (relatively) carbon-free and cost effectively. When I was in Stockholm on an exchange trip in late 2019, I couldn't help myself but try out Bird and Lime scooters despite it costing quite a bomb. Though I can't quite remember the exact amount I paid but I remember it being upwards of 50 kronas/5 euros/400 Indian Rupees for a short 10-15 minute ride; something that was very expensive considering that I had a public transport card that allowed me to take unlimited trips across the city and to most of suburbs an hour or two away.

A Vélib stand a stone's throw away from
the Eiffel Tower

While Bangalore has cheap modes of transport to get around the city, be it the buses, auto-rickshaws, cabs the metro or even Yulus and Bounces, one cannot say the same about cities in Europe. A single use ticket in Stockholm costs around 45 krona/5 euros/450 Indian Rupees if my memory serves me right. A single use ticket in Paris costs 1.90 euros while in NYC it is 2.75 USD. Even in Le Havre, the town that I live in, a single use tram/bus ticket costs north of 1.5 euros which makes travelling affordable although one would consider walking if it is under 3-4 stops. As a long time cyclist, the thought of walking bores me but neither is practical to take my bike everywhere. Further, that is not an option when I visit other cities, and I am sure it is the same for others too. During my recent trip to Paris, my friends and I decided to bike around the city to take advantage of not only Paris having no tourists owing to visa and travel restrictions but also use their famed Vélib bikes.

The bikes are easy to locate and one does not need to look too far to spot a Vélib bike stand. You can choose from an e-bike and a mechanical bike, both of which are easy to use by anyone who knows how to ride a bike. The most attractive aspect of Vélib bikes, besides its practicality, is the price point at which it operates. We bought a day pass for 5 euros and could use the bike for 30 minutes at a stretch, unlimited number of times, at no additional cost. As we were after all students travelling on a budget, we exploited the system by docking our bikes every 30 minutes and restarting our rides to ensure we do not get charged the 1-2 euros per 30 minutes depending on how long you use it for. When you're biking for the entire day, those 1-2 euros would've added up! As a micro-mobility enthusiast, I could not resist trying the e-bikes, albeit sparingly as it cost 1 euro for 30 minutes despite having the pass. All in all, we spent a grand total of 7 euros to get around Paris and cover a total distance of 30 km over the course of the entire day; the low mileage was because we took breaks soaking in the sights, meeting a friend for a long lunch, a bit of shopping and more. Considering that we rode along the Seine, viewed the Louvre, visited the Eiffel Tower and Champs-Elysées, navigated through the infamous roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe, stocked up on Indian supplies at the Gare du Nord area, visited a friend's apartment, biked (almost) all the way up to the Sacre-Couer and then finally to our flixbus station in the outskirts of the city, I'd say that it was money well spent. Doing the same thing using the metro and other public transport would have cost us at least double (if not triple) the amount, along with it being more unsafe considering that social distancing and other COVID protocols (except the wearing of masks) are not followed in public transport. 

Some tips and pointers

  • Ensure your phone is well charged to locate Vélib bike stands. All bikes come equipped with a small pouch with a transparent screen in which you can put your to navigate across town/to a bike stand.
  • Look out for bikes with a reversed seat. This is an informal rule that indicates that the bike has an issue; do not try to unlock that bike and don't forget to turn the seat of a bike you have used if you think it has an issue that makes it unsafe or unusable.
    AVOID these bikes (point #2)

  • Respect traffic rules and try and stick to biking lanes as much as possible (more rules below).
  • A 300 euro (100% refundable) hold will be placed on your credit/debit card. Account for that!
  • Check your bike's chain and brakes before unlocking it (especially for e-bikes which are going to cost you). My e-bike's chain was broken and I did not notice but I was thankfully not charged as I docked it within 20-30 seconds.
  • Link your Vélib account to your Navigo pass if you have one. I was in Paris just for the day so I didn't buy a Navigo pass and I'm not sure how to link it but it is more convenient to unlock a bike.
  • Once you buy your Vélib day/week/month pass, save the code and your password. You will need it every time you start a ride.
  • Wear a helmet; Paris has some wild drivers and this is coming from someone who lived the first 18-19 years of his life in Bangalore!

Useful rules to keep in mind - general and France specific

Learn the basic traffic rules!

  • Anyone to your right has priority (prioritè à droite) except if you are entering a roundabout that is marked with a roundabout sign (in which case, anyone inside the roundabout has priority over you). Pro tip: the Arc de Triomphe roundabout is NOT a roundabout, priorité à droite applies even if you are inside the roundabout so give way to anyone entering! 
  • Look for give way signs with a cycle and an arrow at traffic lights. If the arrow corresponds to the direction you are travelling, you can legally jump the signal provided you won't be obstructing traffic from any direction. 
  • Footpaths are for pedestrians, not bikers; expect to be told told off by the locals if you are caught riding on a footpath.
  • Biking traffic has increased significantly since COVID-19 which means that the police are keeping a stern-er eye on bikers. Bikers have been fined for wearing earphones and not having their lights on when it gets dark. All bike users below the age of 12 years have to wear helmets irrespective of whether they are riding or are pillions!
  • Don't stop on a bike lane (or even the road for that matter!) unless you are at a signal, pedestrian crossing or yielding way to someone who has priority!

    • A couple of pictures from the Vélib biking trip!

    Enjoying a warm glass of mulled wine
    under the Eiffel Tower - perfect for the -1°C
      weather. Yes, we cycled in     -1°C for the first
    two hours!


    The Arc de Triomphe where
     priorité à droite applies!

    View of the Louvre

    And lastly, me on the Vélib (unseen)
    under the Eiffel Tower

    Labels:
    Location: Paris, France

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Visiting the Kasturinagar (KA-03) RTO - a tumultuous but manageable experience to get a Learner's/ Driver's License without an agent/ driving school

    Ask anyone, and I can guarantee that they will have a story (and in most cases, many stories) about their trip, or rather, numerous trips to the RTO for something as simple as getting a Learner's License (LL) or a Driver's License (DL). In this blog, I hope to make your life a tad bit easier by guiding you through the entire process, which may seem easy at first but is full of (overcome able) challenges if you know what you are doing. I turned 18 in January this year, and besides cutting a cake, I worked on my LL application online. I challenged myself to complete the entire LL to DL process by myself and without the help of an agent or a driving school, unlike what the majority do. The lengthy application process and multiple visits to the RTO, impressed upon me why most people decided to pay a little extra to get an agent to do it for them. Still, I was determined not to pay a single rupee more than the official cost. I succeeded.  Do note that this answer is concerning the K
    15 comments
    Read more

    The Great Omani Coastal Route

    Route 15 : Muscat-Nizwa The parents, seemingly forever, had been planning a trip to Oman. Why Oman? Well, that’s a question I asked myself too. My dad, in the 90s, spent close to a decade in the UAE but barring a work trip, had never visited Oman. Fast forward to the 21 st   century, countless Oman Air flights from India to Europe later, he found himself stranded in Muscat. A ‘technical difficulty’ they said. He visited the Sultan Qaboos Mosque but didn’t get to see much more – it was only a 24-hour layover. However, the constant propaganda he was subjected to via the in-flight entertainment, and the cabin crew he made conversation with, convinced him that the country has a lot to offer. A friend from the UAE, who spoke highly of Oman, apparently also played a role.     The parents had their mind set on Oman. The stars aligned and clubbing together a bunch of bank holidays in India, they decided on visiting in April. Unfortunately, or fortunately (the jury is still out), their son, liv
    1 comment
    Read more

    iOS 7 Update for Apple Devices

    There is an OS update for iPads, iPhones and iPods (only for some generations). In this update there are many changes. The button on the right side of your iPads and iPhones now can be used to either, lock screen rotation, mute, pause or play your music. Lock Screen: In the older version to unlock the phones/tablet we had to swipe at the bottom part at the screen. Now we can swipe anywhere on the screen. As you can see in the picture, I have circled something at the bottom. If we swipe upwards we get many shortcuts. We can pause, play, change music tracks, increase/decrease volume, put the tablet/phone into airplane mode, Turn On/Off Wifi/Bluetooth/Do Not Disturb Option and mute our device.We can also view the current time in different time zones. The keypad that we see when we unlock the phone is also different.Changing the brightness is also an option.Here is a picture of this shortcut panel and the unlock iPad keypad. Control center Different Keypad in lock screen
    55 comments
    Read more

    Beating the winter blues - Morocco

      After having spent just over two months in England, with short trips to America’s east coast on work and Paris for Diwali, I was itching to travel somewhere new – somewhere I hadn’t been before.     I found myself in one of the study rooms at university, unable to focus on my readings. Winter was setting in. The days were getting shorter, London was getting greyer, and the sun had gone into hibernation. An important question was running in my mind – one that would determine how I would overcome the impending winter blues – what will I do during the Christmas break? A typical international student’s response would be simple – book a return ticket to your home country. However, as a seasoned international student, my response had to be different, right? With a not-so-powerful passport in hand, I grappled with my options. Limited by choices of visa-regime friendly choices, I first laid out a bunch of criteria for an anti-winter blues holiday of choice. I wanted three things - the sun, w
    1 comment
    Read more

    Life during the COVID-19 lockdown

    The past three weeks have impacted people around India in different ways. The migrant labourers and daily wage workers have unarguably been affected the worst. It has been an interesting three weeks in which the concept of privilege was spoken about vastly in the media. Even though the salaried middle class is also affected, their lives have been phenomenally better than, for example, those they employ to clean their houses or wash their dishes. It is at times such as these that I realise how lucky a majority of my friends and I are. While most of the country is suffering (suffering in the real sense of not being able to afford and procure three square meals a day and NOT because a shop ran out of imported cheese) in lockdown, my parents could work from home, without intruding into each other’s personal space and could carry out some, if not most of their work from the comfort of their house, unlike the majority of the country. I have been reading articles about the shortfalls of in
    10 comments
    Read more

    A few questions we must ask ourselves about the situation surrounding the Babri Masjid/ Ram Mandir controversy

    August 5, 2020, was a historic day in India for two reasons. First, it was a year since the special status of J&K was revoked, and the state was converted into Union Territories; it resulted in it being directly controlled by the Central Government in Delhi and no longer controlled by an elected government under the federal setup. It was simultaneously followed with a year-long (and still ongoing) internet and communications blockade. Second, it was a day celebrated by right-wing Hindu nationalists because of the  ground-bre aking ceremony (Bhoomi Pooja/ Puja) that was held to begin construction of a temple for Lord Ram; a temple being built on a land where a mosque that was demolished by close allies of the BJP in 1992 lay. Reaching this point was not easy. It was a struggle that lasted for decades, multiple cases in court, contributions from the Archaeological Survey of India, claims of Muslims invaders building a mosque over a temple etc. The court finally ruled in favour a temp
    1 comment
    Read more

    Opinion on the Tax Rebate - Budget 2019

    Source The Union Budget of India that was presented on Feb 1, 2019 was a populist-vote bank driven one filled with proposals to woo all possible stakeholders who are eligible to vote. Be it farmers, the middle class or the economically stronger ones, all sections of society after a brief glance at the highlights of the budget will be content with what Piyush Goyal has to offer in the sixth and final Budget of this term of the NDA. Although I found many parts of the budget a questionable waste of money to fuel populist schemes, I did enjoy certain parts of it, especially the newly introduced tax rebate. The proposed tax rebate  in which income upto INR 5 lakhs is essentially tax-free is one that I wholly welcome for many reasons. The tax-rebate proposal and terms is something that I welcome unconditionally but the way how the Finance Minister has portrayed income up to INR 6.5 lakhs tax free (with the disclaimer that this is only possible if all the 'right' investments ar
    49 comments
    Read more