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Louis recently received his Velib card and I mentioned to him how I had given up on the service since they changed the operator. It has been a perfect storm of incompetence, technological evolution and luck. When the Mairie de Paris decided to change operator they didn't measure the difficulty of the transition and for nearly a year the system didn't work properly. As it happens, at the same time, the electric scooter companies arrived in Paris flooding the city with their easy and fast alternatives. Even though the Velib system now seems to work properly I believe they will probably never fully recover from their fall from grace. I for one (who was an early adopter of Velib') will probably not be going back. It seems strange to have to take and return your bike at specific station. I wonder if the Velib' will be like the Minitel a great French invention and precursor which in the end was killed by the internet.
- Roti de veau en cocotte
- Riz Basmatti
- Yaourt de brebis et banane plantain
Louis recently received his Velib card and I mentioned to him how I had given up on the service since they changed the operator. It has been a perfect storm of incompetence, technological evolution and luck. When the Mairie de Paris decided to change operator they didn't measure the difficulty of the transition and for nearly a year the system didn't work properly. As it happens, at the same time, the electric scooter companies arrived in Paris flooding the city with their easy and fast alternatives. Even though the Velib system now seems to work properly I believe they will probably never fully recover from their fall from grace. I for one (who was an early adopter of Velib') will probably not be going back. It seems strange to have to take and return your bike at specific station. I wonder if the Velib' will be like the Minitel a great French invention and precursor which in the end was killed by the internet.
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ReplyDeleteThe electric vélibs are surprisingly bad for steep inclines, so I generally go for the non-electric ones. Still, It'll be interesting to see how the e-scooter market affects vélibs ridership and strategic response, as well as how expensive shared e-scooters will be in a few years.
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