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PARIS, France – The fact that Vélib’s project manager Mathieu Fierling was at Taipei Cycle this year indicates the importance the Paris city council is giving its cycle hire scheme. He told Bike Europe that despite the vandalism problems not only a new and more vandalism-proof Vélib bike is now being developed but also that the scheme is expanded with another 300 hire stations and 3,300 bikes.

Vélib is currently being rolled outside the city for the first time. Recently the first of 29 suburbs was plugged into the network. Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris, was that first with 21 docking stations filled with Vélib’s. Before the end of the year the cycle hire scheme is to be extended to the other suburbs surrounding the French capital.

Each of the suburban towns, from Boulogne to rougher suburbs like Montreuil or Aubervilliers, will get an average of 10 docking stations, with a total of 3,300 cycles to be placed by year's end.

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who championed the original scheme and who lobbied for it to be extended to the suburbs, recently inaugurated the Boulogne network.

The expansion of the network is costing Paris city € 8 million. JC Decaux, the advertising group that covers the cost of Velib, picks up the bill for labour and local authorities for roadworks.

The fact that Paris city is paying for the Vélib stations and bikes in the suburbs is part of a new deal called “Avenant no. 1” that was negotiated with JCDecaux. According to Vélib’s project manager Mathieu Fierling, it is agreed in the new deal with the outdoor advertising company that the Paris city will pay more for by vandalism damaged bikes.

Fierling also said that this summer 21,000 Vélib’s will be available all over Paris not only for its inhabitants but also for the millions of tourists that visit the Capital.