They have a really cool public transport system in Lyon, called Vélo’v. It consists of little mini-stations, each of which houses a couple of dozen bikes. You buy a 1€ card (which lasts for a week), and this lets you hire a bike from one of the “stations”. They charge you €2 per hour, but the first half hour on every bike is free. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?! Yes, a little warning buzzer goes off after 27 minutes of cycling, to let you know that you have 3 minutes left before they start charging you. Your mission then, should you have absolutely no money as the result of being a victime d’un infraction and therefore have no choice but to accept it, is to pedal madly, scouring the streets for another Vélo’v “station”. Find one, return the bike, and take out a new one… hey presto! Another free half hour!
All very well if you’re not someone with absolutely no sense of direction.
Partly for this reason, and partly because I am too afraid to ride a bike on roads where they drive like maniacs (I’m especially intrigued by the practice of reversing the length of an entire street at great speed – today I witnessed a woman almost being knocked over as she crossed at a designated crossing point, having looked left, seen that the road was clear, and stepped straight into the path of a car zooming backwards from her right), I chose to try out the bike thing at the park instead. Le Parc de la Tête d’Or is quite close to where I’m living, and it’s beautiful. Gardens, walkways, a huge lake, and – oddly – groups of wild animals randomly dotted around. I thought Le Flatmate was joking when he told me to watch out for the lion. As it turns out, he wasn’t.
I cycled merrily around for 27 minutes, taking in the sights, breathing the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin. Bliss.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Beep-beep-beep.
Uh-oh. Relaxation went out the window as my bike announced that It Was Time. Like a meerkat, I sat up straight and looked all around, trying to remember where I’d come from and if I’d passed any bike docks. Erm. Help. Panic inexplicably descended, as if paying €2 would make matters significantly worse or something, and I began cycling faster than I’ve ever gone before. I had no plan. I just kept going. Then, as I passed a familiar-looking tree (what? You don’t recognise trees that you’ve previously encountered?), I realised I’d just done a frenzied circuit.
It’s been a long time since I last went on a bike ride. I suspect it may be quite some time before I go on another one. Breathless, blinded by sweat, and my damp hair plastered to the side of my face, I glimpsed an exit gate. With – oh joy! – a Vélo’v “station” outside. Jumping off (and narrowly avoiding collapsing to a trembling heap on the ground), I wheeled the bike to a stand and secured it. My legs were decidedly wobbly, and other parts ached in a saddlesore kind of way. I sat down rather suddenly on a low wall, pretending that I was just enjoying the view (of the car park).
Cycling is an enjoyable, efficient and relaxing way to see the city. Yes.
Filed under: bikes, fun, Lyon, park, scenery, serenity, stress, sun
Wow, the bikes in Lyon have warning timers? That’s excellent! The Vélib’s (and no, it’s not abuse, that apostrophe is supposed to be there) in Paris work similarly, but there is no warning as to when you are approaching the 30-minute mark. However, if you roll up to a Vélib’ station and there is no room to park your bike, you can sign in at the kiosk and it will tell you nearby stations with open spots and give you a free 15 minutes. I do love the public bikes!
Ooh, that’s brilliant. Why have a bike thing here, provided by the Deutsche Bahn, but there are no stations.. you can leave it anywhere. The idea is you call (or possibly text) the number on the bike when you pick it up then when you’re done you just leave it somehwere. I presume you then have to call again to say you’ve stopped using it. So throughout toen you’ll just randomly run into all these bikes leaning against trees and stuff.
We have a bike thing I mean, not why…
For some reason, the bit about the woman nearly getting run over made me really laugh out loud, which is quite worrying seeing as I’m in the house on my own. Funny girl. x
I think I’m gonna need to use one of those bikes to get to Ballymena on Sunday morning.
Croquecamille – there speaks one with absolutely no fear of the Crazy French Roads, then!
Bevchen – if I wasn’t such an honest girl, that would seem like an awfully good way to get a free bike, you know. I can’t help but wonder how they prevent people just taking off with them…
EM – It made me laugh, too, after I’d removed my hands from over my eyes and seen that she was still alive. She just started flailing her arms around in a complete rage, and swearing loudly at him. And he just continued to reverse past her…
Billybrid – Get yourself a driving licence, woman!
They have some kind of tracking device on them I think. Or at least a little box that has a blinking green light on. Plus they have “Deutsche Bahn” written all over them… slightly conspicuous!
Loved that post … what a brilliant idea, I would imaging Lance Armstrong would love to live there ….
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