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PARIS, France –The presence of Vélib’s project manager Mathieu Fierling at the Taipei Cycle this year was a clear indication to the importance the Paris city council is giving to its cycle hire scheme. He told Bike Europe that a new and more vandal-proof Vélib bike is now being developed in the fight against vandalism problems.

Besides the told Bike Europe that the scheme is expanded with another 300 hire stations and 3,300 bikes by the end of this year.

Vélib is expanding 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 the first with 21 docking stations filled with Vélibs. Before the end of the year the cycle hire scheme is to be extended to 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 the city of Paris € 8 million. JC Decaux, the advertising group that covers the cost of Velib, picks up the bill for labour and local authorities for roadwork.

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 was agreed in the new deal with the outdoor advertising company that the Paris city will pay more towards bikes damaged by vandalism.

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