Left: the first Dutch “white bike”, 1966. Right: the French copy.

Paris is going to offer its citizens and tourists a new service: free self-service bikes.

Before the summer 14,100 bikes will be available; by the end of this year there should be 20,600. Users can pick up and drop off the bikes at 1,451 stations across the city.

The bike fleet will be installed and maintained by JCDecaux, a French company that makes big money with advertising billboards and busstops. In exchange for the bikes plus two million euros over 10 years, JCDecaux is allowed to place around 1,600 billboards in the city.

Impressive as the numbers may sound, the idea of free bikes is far from new. Already in 1966 a similar plan was introduced in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, most “white bikes” were stolen, and the project flopped.

The Parisian bikes will be equipped with an anti-theft device, but it would be interesting to see how many bikes disappear over time…

Source (in French) | JCDecaux website

See also: Paris set for invasion of self-service bicycles