Chicagoist: Bike Program Spinning Its Wheels

L. Stolpman

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:43:56 -0600

If you plan on using a Velib bike while in Paris next time, you should know that the machines only accept French-issued credit cards. So,...yeah, good luck.

prattfall

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:03:43 -0600

Joe, you do know those chipped credit cards can be scanned by an attacker from up to 60 feet away? http://www.oreillynet.com/conferences/blog/2006/03/digging_in_to_rfid.html That means I can steal your card without ever coming near your ass. To the OP, yeah, Chicago's not as accessible as Paris. I don't expect most folks will be interested in going more than a couple miles, and if that's the case, where are you biking that Bike Chicago doesn't already have a location?

frp

Fri, 30 May 2008 15:23:11 -0600

@yok -- I experienced that exact same set of circumstances when I was in Paris trying to rent one of the damn things. 30 minutes walking the equivalent of a 6 Chicago-city block radius looking for a bike. I had the bike I found for about 30 minutes when I just got tired of the bloody thing and just wanted to sit and have a drink. Another 20 minutes looking for a spot to return it -- you would think that I'd have found an empty spot, what with lack of bikes I encountered only about an hour before; I had biked into an area where the bikes just weren't that popular, and there were plenty of bikes to be had, but no open/empty spots. I DO like the idea, though...maybe I'll just get me one of those 4-seater family bikes at Navy Pier and ride that around the city all day....anyone care to join me?

JoeM500

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:58:20 -0600

This really won't work until we get the chipped credit cards, like the rest of the world!

mss2400

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:43:01 -0600

I don't own (or plan to own)a bike, and I'm totally turned off by the "holier than thou" culture of hard core bicyclists in this city. I hope, however, this idea takes off. Are they going to rent locks and helmets too?

YoknapatawphaTourismBoard

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:34:12 -0600

I what I've seen in Paris and I'll like it here, I suspect. It's worth noting that the Parisians, while they love it, do find it occasionally frustrating... I read a quote a while back and I don't remember where, so I'll paraphrase... taking a Velib bike to work is spending ten minutes looking for an available bike, fifteen minutes of joyous peddling and twenty minutes of looking for an open spot to park the thing.

sparky

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:19:31 -0600

I don't think that this will work very well. I like the ieda, and I have been to Paris and seen Velib in action, I may even rent a bike next time I am there, where it seems to work very well. In Chicago, Velib might be great for the tourist or the occassional cyclist to get out on the Lake Shore path and take up some sun, but I know I would be scared as hell to take the bike anywhere else. Seasoned cyclists likely have a bike already and are comfortable with biking in the city. I believe that the bike culture in Chicago needs to change before Velib can become successful: cars need to respect bikes, bikes need to respect the laws, and both need to respect pedestrians (and vice versa) before the culture in this city can change. On a positive note: maybe the Chicago Velib tourists might be more careful, and not disobey the traffic laws like many other cyclists do, because they won't have the unsafe habits of the asshole cyclists that break the rules.

Slaphappy

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:10:30 -0600

My thoughts exactly, matty.

matty

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:38:58 -0600

This will never work.

Mary_Sunshine

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:27:24 -0600

It's not exactly free advertising when you pay to sponsor something.

rhoswhen

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:18:33 -0600

Cuz its free advertising, Joe.

JoeM500

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:09:16 -0600

so strange that advertising companies are the only ones able to make this work.