Vélib’ has surpassed 300,000 subscribers!

Vélib’ has reached a new record in 2016 with more than 300,000 long-term subscribers. The self-service bicycle hire scheme, now a hallmark of the capital city’s identity, has largely helped to get Parisians back cycling.
 
The City of Paris and JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC) announce that Vélib’ has surpassed the threshold of 300,000 long-term subscribers.
 
Since its launch in 2007, the world’s largest self-service bicycle hire scheme has been a phenomenal success among the public:
 

• More than one bike is rented every second (75 bikes per minute);
• Each bike is rented an average of nearly six times a day;
• More than 292 million bike rentals since the launch of the system.

The success of Vélib’ can be attributed to a policy that ensures access to the service for everyone with the aim of increasing the use of bikes as a method of city transport: attractive prices, payment by bank card, tie-in with public transport passes, easy subscription (via internet), instructions provided in foreign languages at bike-hire terminals.
 
The growing number of subscribers illustrates the extent to which this 21^st century form of urban mobility has developed: it is ecological, shared, uses little public space, and is healthy and economical. Its success can also be connected with the density of the city network of Paris and its inner suburbs, the reliability and maintenance quality of the equipment, the maintenance and regulation of the service, and the level of customer relationship management, which obtained NF “Customer Services” certification in July 2014 and was awarded Customer Service of the Year, 2016 in the “Individual people transport” category*.

Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “We are very proud of the success of Vélib’ which yesterday surpassed the symbolic threshold of 300,000 long-term subscribers. Today, nearly 75 Vélib’ bikes are rented every minute, a figure that confirms the steadily growing popularity of this user-friendly and ecological scheme among users. It also reflects the quality of service provided by JCDecaux’s teams, which oversee rigorous maintenance and optimised regulation of all systems on a daily basis. By designing a differentiating transport scheme that complements all of the other transport services, we are providing a sustainable response to the needs of local community members. As the world leader in self-service bike hire schemes we are constantly thinking about the next generation of self-service bikes, applying all our energy and creativity with the aim of satisfying the end-user”.

* Inference Operations survey – Viséo Conseil – May to July 2015 – For more information see: www.escda.fr.