Cyclocity® is an “eco-friendly means of transport” that JCDecaux is making available for local authorities. Cyclocity® is a comprehensive, easy-to-use solution designed to promote greater mobility: docking stations with bicycles, bicycle stands, an interactive terminal, and the possibility of using a subscription card or a credit or debit card to pay for the service. The design of this communal bicycle scheme – involving engineering, industrial design, hardware, embedded software and server software – is the fruit of several years’ work on the part of the Group’s integrated teams: the Industrial Department, Graphic Arts Department, Information Systems Department, and New Technologies Department.

The Cyclocity® station

Each docking station is available 24 hours a day on a self-service basis. Users insert a subscription card (or a credit or debit card) into the interactive terminal, which immediately releases a bicycle attached to a stand. Users return the borrowed bicycles when they have finished with them to any docking station in the capital.

Protected by 8 patents, Cyclocity® is based on a simple idea: the reconciliation of accessibility, safety, freedom, and environmental protection in an urban environment.

The Cyclocity® concept, designed and developed by JCDecaux and first launched by the greater Lyon area under the name of Vélo’v, has since been adopted by Paris, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Mulhouse, Besançon, Rouen, Toulouse, Brussels, Luxembourg and Seville.

 Many institutional prizes have been awarded to JCDecaux for this innovation, which remains unparalleled elsewhere in the world on such a scale: the 2005 Trophée du vélo, the Trophée 2005 l’Usine Nouvelle, the 2006 Janus de l’industrie, and the 2006 Enterprise and Environment prize. In 2007, Vélib’ (the name adopted by the self-service bicycle hire scheme in Paris) was awarded the Stratégies du Design Grand Prix and the Janus Services prize.