Flags volant on vertical poles in the city of Caen in north west of France. Two flags of France and two of Normandy with their two lions. But enough of this vacillation, on to the main word...
. The name of the bike loan scheme in the city which was started in March 2008. There are 350 bikes and 40 stations. Pay an annual subscription of €15 or rent by the half hour, getting the code to unlock (or as they put it the Liberté formula), by wap phone, SMS text or website and even from that old fashioned thing a phone line number. The user card has a radio frequency so it can be used without even leaving your pocket, use the code and
voilà the bike or
velo is yours to ride and
venture around the city. The biker message boards give it a thumbs up but say the shaft drive mechanism was 'interesting', no idea what that means as we were not in Caen long enough to take advantage of the scheme. There are quite a few of these loan schemes around the world but wouldn't it be marvellous if more places had them. As you may be able to tell I am a bit of a bike enthusiast so of course when I saw these I was almost as excited by the racks as the Gothic church
they were stood by. Added
value to my day was to see them being towed
vaward by a
van across the city.
Once used and finished with left at the nearest station so I imagine they may pile up at one destination.
possibly after taking the
victuals out of the basket, leaving the
vehicle and paying a
visit to a local café.
Vroom across to
ABC Wednesday for more words starting with the letter
V
7 comments:
Ahhh blue skies - we could do with some of these! Apparantly we are due more snow on Thursday and the month is going to be very cold! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr! Better wrap up well then eh?
Thanks so much
Denise
ABC Team
I loVe this!
This is SO civilized! I'd do it in a heartbeat. ROG, ABC Wednesday team
Nice concept. And moreover it is environment friendly, reduces pollution and jams and makes the rider healthy by providing good exercise.
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Snow Leopard
Those blue skies really set off these photos from your V collection nicely.
Very nice system. I like blue bike, too. So cool. Thanks for sharing.
What a great scheme! I've heard of a similar one with cars, too. Takes courage to start one, I imagine, and I hope people don't take advantage and do treat the bikes well!
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