Expatica.com reports:
Paris is bracing for a transport revolution later this year with the arrival of more than 20,000 self-service bicycles thanks to a deal between city hall and one of the world's leading suppliers of urban advertising.
A contract signed Monday with JCDecaux gives the French firm access to more than 1,600 hoardings and other publicity sites, but also requires it to provide a mass system of cheap cycles-for-hire.
By the end of the year JCDecaux has undertaken to set up 1,451 stations, where customers can use swipe-cards to rent some 20,600 cycles for journeys around the capital. The bikes can be deposited at any station, and then picked up by new users.
A similar system has been run by JCDecaux since 2005 in thesoutheastern city of Lyon, where city authorities have hailed it as amajor success in the campaign to reduce motor transport.
Examples of Lyon's bicycle stations are available here.
Photo: Phil Moore/Flickr
