Paris woos cyclists with free bike scheme

By James Mackenzie

PARIS (Reuters) - This year's Tour de France may have been ruined by doping scandals but a new city bike scheme has ensured two-wheeled transport has rarely been more popular on the streets of the French capital.

The "Velib" -- short for "free bike" -- programme launched in Paris this month has been a runaway success for Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, allowing thousands of Parisians and visitors to leave their cars at home to pedal to work or to the shops.

Similar systems exist in other European countries, as city administrations struggle to ease both traffic gridlock and air pollution, but the French capital has the most ambitious scheme.

Some 616,000 users have signed up to be able to pick up bikes at more than 750 points in Paris for daily subscriptions of one euro.

"People have taken to the service very quickly. We're getting around 1,200 requests for registration a day," said France Pele from the Paris city hall.

The sturdy grey-green bikes have become a common sight, with people ranging from students to business executives weaving through traffic. Even screen legend Alain Delon has had a go.

"It's very good, I really like it. Although having said that, I can't get this thing to work now," said Roland Martinez, a salesman struggling to clip his bike back into place at a pickup point near the Tuileries gardens.

Paris is unlikely ever to rival classic bicycling cities like Amsterdam. But Velib is a revolution in a city with a vast metro network but an increasingly choked road system, where bicycling has long been looked on with suspicion.