Vélib' update

It's been a while since I've given an update on Vélib', the wildly successful bike-sharing scheme in Paris. Heavily used last summer, I expected a severe fall-off in usage over the winter months, but that does not appear to have been the case. What follows is an update from Paul DeMaio's bike-sharing blog:

Updated Velib' Stats



The latest Velib' survey results are available and posted on the Velib' Website. Just in case you don't parlez Français, here's a summary:

* Trips to date: 20 million
* Average trips/day: 70,000
* Average trip time: 18 minutes
* 190,000 annual pass holders
* 42% of users are female, 58% are male
* 1/3 of users come from outside the central city
* 17% of users are 46+ years old
* 94% of users like the service

These results are highly impressive. The stats that amazed me the most are the number of trips to date and the percentage of female users. As Velib' is not yet one year old, there are still about two months of trips still to be made which could equate to another 5 million trips, or a total of 25 million trips, before the anniversary of it's launch date of July 15.

Having nearly the same percentage of female and male customers shows how mainstream bike-sharing has become in Paris. In cities where lesser bike cultures exist, such as those in North America, males tend to dominate bike usage by 3 to 1. Women are less likely to ride a bike when concerned about their safety compared to men. Men also tend to be generally more risk-taking and will ride in less safe street conditions. While not 50/50, this male/female customer demographic shows that women are using Velib' confidently, so Paris has done a good job in creating safe bike facilities before the launch of the program.

Fantastique!

image credit: Velib'
Posted by Paul DeMaio

Here are some women-on-Vélib' shots from a Google image search:





(Not a Vélib' bike, but I couldn't resist it.)