{"id":137577,"date":"2016-04-20T10:25:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T10:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=137577"},"modified":"2016-04-25T10:32:05","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T10:32:05","slug":"velib-bike-renting-work-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/04\/20\/velib-bike-renting-work-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Velib: How Does Bike Renting Work in Paris?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Discovering Paris on a bicycle seat is a unique and fulfilling experience, and the 23,600 bicycles located every 300 meters and available 24\/7 make it seem like a reasonably easy thing to do. One of the members of WeLoveCycling.com decided to try it first hand, and today we bring you his report.<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Velib stations are truly everywhere. At the beginning, I struggled with the terminal and its small keyboard. Surprisingly, the system has been working for a couple of years now, but you still don\u2019t get a touch screen. Otherwise, it\u2019s all pretty straightforward \u2013 you pay a 150-euro deposit, you get a 1-day access to the service (1.70 euro) with a PIN code, choose a bike from the rack, which then unlocks for a limited amount of time, you collect your wheels and there you go.<\/p>\n<p>The first half-hour is always free, so I got to admit I just did a short test ride and took it to the nearest terminal. I parked it back to the rack, the system recognized the bike instantly and locked it within five seconds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_137580\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-137580\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-137580\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/04\/profimedia-0076958867-2.jpg\" alt=\"The first half-hour is always free, so I got to admit I just did a short test ride and took it to the nearest terminal. I parked it back to the rack, the system recognized the bike instantly and locked it within five seconds.\" width=\"800\" height=\"538\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-137580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Velib station in Paris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first time I just chose the bike closest to the terminal, but it\u2019s better to have a quick look at the offerings before you take one. It\u2019s not common, but you can still come across a bicycle with a broken chain or even without a seat. After doing that, you just punch your PIN code into the terminal again, and off you go.<\/p>\n<p>Paris is a truly bike-friendly city. There are loads of cycle lanes, traffic lights specially designed for cyclists, and the bikes just kind of belong there. The drivers and pedestrians don\u2019t mind them at all, so Velib truly is an ideal way to get around the city.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-137581\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/04\/profimedia-0106483602-2.jpg\" alt=\"Paris is a truly bike-friendly city.\" width=\"800\" height=\"588\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The bikes themselves are tough and heavy, built to withstand the sometimes harsh treatment they get. The construction itself is oriented towards simplicity and uses internal hub gears, but you get the practicality of mudguards, a carrier over the front wheel, and the lights turn on automatically when there is poor visibility.<\/p>\n<p>I faced some minor issues with two terminals temporarily out of service, and during the time I waited for them to be rebooted, they only communicated in French, which really confused me the first time. All in all, the system works great, though, and not only for tourists. You can get yourself a special card as a local and use Velib every day. Quick and easy!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-137579\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/04\/profimedia-0146842767-2.jpg\" alt=\"I faced some minor issues with two terminals temporarily out of service, and during the time I waited for them to be rebooted, they only communicated in French, which really confused me the first time. All in all, the system works great, though, and not only for tourists. You can get yourself a special card as a local and use Velib every day. Quick and easy!\" width=\"800\" height=\"1202\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discovering Paris on a bicycle seat is a unique and fulfilling experience, and the 23,600 bicycles located every 300 meters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":137578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[359,360],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-137577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urban-cycling","tag-paris","tag-velib"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Velib: How Does Bike Renting Work in Paris? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discovering Paris on a bicycle seat is a unique and fulfilling experience, and the 23,600 bicycles located every 300 meters and available 24\/7 make it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/04\/20\/velib-bike-renting-work-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Velib: How Does Bike Renting Work in Paris?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discovering Paris on a bicycle seat is a unique and fulfilling experience, and the 23,600 bicycles located every 300 meters and available 24\/7 make it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/04\/20\/velib-bike-renting-work-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-20T10:25:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-25T10:32:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/04\/242242442_242424224-2.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jakubstepanek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WeLoveCycling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/04\/20\/velib-bike-renting-work-paris\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/04\/20\/velib-bike-renting-work-paris\/\",\"name\":\"Velib: How Does Bike Renting Work in Paris? 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