2023-07-21 04:00:01
An employee repairs bicycles at a Vélib station in Paris on April 23, 2020. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
The Vélib’ benefits from the craze for the bicycle. The self-service bicycle covering Paris and around sixty municipalities in its suburbs, operated by the company Smovengo, has some 400,000 subscribers, more than in the years 2007-2017, when the service was entrusted to the advertising giant JCDecaux. With 44 million journeys made in 2022, the service has exceeded the level prior to the change of operator and the pandemic. Each bicycle is used four to seven times a day. The creation of many cycle routes, in Paris but also in its suburbs, undoubtedly contributes to this result.
Everything is fine for Vélib’, then? Not quite. In 2022, the use of self-service bicycles in Paris only increased by 13%, a lower development than that of use of cycle routes (+ 19%), according to the travel report of the City of Paris. The regulars deplore in particular, as evidenced by the online comments, the defective bicycles and the empty stations.
In addition, an audit report, published in June by the company Rise Conseil, rekindled the rivalry between the community, the Syndicat Autolib’ et Vélib’ Métropole (SAVM), made up of elected officials from the municipalities concerned, and its service provider Smovengo, a tailor-made consortium created by economic players in the bicycle (Fifteen), parking (Indigo) and mobility (Mobivia, Moventia) sectors.
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The Rise Conseil audit, which concerns the period 2018-2021, the start of operation by Smovengo, makes a harsh judgment. “The quality of service is not satisfactory” and does not meet the expectations of users or the terms of the contract with the public authority, say the consultants. The user satisfaction rate, measured each year by Ipsos, does not exceed 50% in 2021, much lower than the 88% posted in 2010, at the time of JCDecaux, but also, as the audit notes bitterly, to the satisfaction of SNCF (59%) or RATP (89%) customers.
Bicycle deficit service
If the number of stations, 1,400, is in line with the contractual objective, the service is short of bicycles. We could rent, in 2021, 17,000, including 7,000 electric, faired in blue, and 10,000 classic, in green. That’s about 3,300 less than what was promised.
Users also complain about the poor condition of the bikes and the difficulty of finding an electric Vélib’. These, given their recharging time, remain stationary for a long time.
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The SAVM, the City of Paris and Smovengo say they share the same objective of improvement. But the community and the operator, who accept ” tight relationships “strongly contradict each other when it comes to defining their respective responsibilities.
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