Comments on: Bike services in Lyon http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/10/10/bike-services-in-lyon/ mind/tech bazar from outer space Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:42:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 By: Pasta&Vinegar » Blog Archive » Bottom-up innovation and velo'v http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/10/10/bike-services-in-lyon/#comment-450126 Pasta&Vinegar » Blog Archive » Bottom-up innovation and velo'v Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:32:19 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/10/10/bike-services-in-lyon/#comment-450126 [...] this post, I mentioned this bike rental service called velo’v in Lyon (Paris has velib, Brussels has [...] […] this post, I mentioned this bike rental service called velo’v in Lyon (Paris has velib, Brussels has […]

]]> By: Jean-Marc Liotier http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/10/10/bike-services-in-lyon/#comment-443483 Jean-Marc Liotier Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:59:05 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/10/10/bike-services-in-lyon/#comment-443483 One of the impacts of biking in a city is that it makes users realize that the ground is not flat. City maps do not represent elevation, but for cyclists it is actually an important information that impacts how they plan their trips. In Paris, the Velib system has problems coping with the elevation of some locations : users borrow the bikes at a high elevation station and put it back at a low elevation one... So a few stations are always empty and a few other are always full. Happily it is a very localized problem. Specialized trucks move bikes from full stations to empty ones, but there are few of them and they only slightly mitigate the problem. A GPS on each bike would be very nice for collecting traffic patterns, but since a Velib system subscription is not anonymous it would provoke outcry from privacy advocates. That said, the new subscription device for the bus and metro system uses RFID that enables tracing users, and the masses don't seem to mind that much. One of the impacts of biking in a city is that it makes users realize that the ground is not flat. City maps do not represent elevation, but for cyclists it is actually an important information that impacts how they plan their trips.

In Paris, the Velib system has problems coping with the elevation of some locations : users borrow the bikes at a high elevation station and put it back at a low elevation one… So a few stations are always empty and a few other are always full. Happily it is a very localized problem. Specialized trucks move bikes from full stations to empty ones, but there are few of them and they only slightly mitigate the problem.

A GPS on each bike would be very nice for collecting traffic patterns, but since a Velib system subscription is not anonymous it would provoke outcry from privacy advocates. That said, the new subscription device for the bus and metro system uses RFID that enables tracing users, and the masses don’t seem to mind that much.

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