French Connection - Marseille Bike Hire

Marseille's new cycle hire scheme was launched recently.

Jack Pia (SADC Councillor for St Peter's Ward & former STACC member) - pictured - happened to be there near the launch date & used the system often during his visit and is full of praise for it.

Jack has been a proponent of 'appropriate' urban transport - walk-cycle-bus for the last half century.
However, before you ask, there are no prospects of such a scheme in St Albans, the city isn't big enough to support one.

The scheme is identical to the one in Lyons (first one in France) - Blogged here and the one in Paris - see useful tips in English here

The scheme name is Vélib’ in both Paris & Marseille and Vélo'v in Lyons (accents & apostrohes - essential for us pedants) .

Whilst Paris & Lyons systems operate 24/7 there's some indication that Marseille does not operate at night yet here

Hmmm... I hope that Jack remembered to ride on the right.

UPDATED 26 Oct
Comment on-line about this at St Albans Review's website [HERE]

Community Bike Hire in Lyon - France

STACC member Bill reports...

Whilst in Lyon I observed first hand their highly successful
community bike initiative which provides bikes for public use
throughout the city.

Excellent Source of more info is HERE
Including costs & payment method - a key point is that you can use for 30 mins free. Of course you hire from one location & return it to any other.