2024-08-10 12:00:00
Paris is counting on cycling to make the Olympics the first “100% bikeable” Olympics. Operators such as Lime, Dott and Vélib are popular.
Bicycles have never been so pleasant in Paris and its nearby suburbs. After the July rains and traffic restrictions, Olympic visitors finally took over the bike paths. Until late at night, bicycles swarmed along the Seine and main arterial roads. While cars and a large number of taxis have left the capital, self-service bicycle operators are jubilant. The Olympics have provided them with revenge.
Less than a year ago, Lime, Dott and Tier were asked to withdraw their 15,000 electric scooters at the request of Paris City Hall the day after a citizens’ referendum. They had to reinvent themselves with electric bikes.
Bicycle quantity increase
Paris 2024 hopes to organize the first “100% bikeable” Olympics, with trails connecting all Olympic venues, which would be a solid consolation prize. Hundreds of kilometers of bike paths and parking lots facilitate the event. Signage has been set up to guide cyclists. Geolocation apps are integrated with Olympic venues and bike routes. Ideal conditions for cycling in Paris. Especially since the fleets of operators have been revised upwards.
Dott and Tier, which merged in March and withdrew the Tier brand from the capital, added 5,000 bikes to bring its fleet to 15,000. The same additional quota was given to Lime, which also deployed 15,000 electric bikes. The area usually covered by these VLS even extends to La Défense and Saint-Denis until the end of the Paralympics in mid-September. For its part, Vélib, which maintains mechanical and electric bikes at its stations, has added 3,000 machines to the 20,000 already in use.
Despite this growth and the strengthening of traditional bike rental companies, supply still fell short of demand from the hundreds of thousands of visitors who came to the event. This scarcity benefited VLS operators, although unlike the RATP, which increased the price of a single metro ticket from €2.15 to €4 during the tournament, VLS operators did not spike their prices.
Price increase
During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, operators cleverly increased the types of packages. Paris City Hall gave them the freedom to set prices, and in addition to the traditional payment by the minute, some are calibrated according to the number of trips in a certain period. Others are in minutes. Vélib charges 3 euros for a 45-minute trip, 5 euros for a daily package for a mechanical car and 10 euros for an electric car. Dott created a “Champion” package for visitors coming to watch the Olympics, priced at 29.90 euros for 10 trips of 20 minutes each. Dott’s other plans (Dott Flex, Dott Pro) range from 4.99 euros to 12.99 euros for 30 days.
Lime is raising its per-minute prices by 4 cents to 32 cents during the Games. The green bike operator is also offering a new 800-minute monthly pass for 79.99 euros, with the same per-minute price as the weekly pass. Another option is designed for Olympic visitors: 180 minutes over three days for 30.75 euros.These packages are for “riders” who travel longer distances than our average customer. Some even go as far as Nanterre or Colombes, where the Olympic Games are taking place.recalled Lime’s Hannah Landau.
We took stock of our progress before the end of the event. As expected, the number of new users skyrocketed. ” Usually the end of July and the first half of August correspond to the off-season”, recalls Jérémie François de Tier-Dott. Our regular users are mainly residents of the Ile-de-France region who go to work during the morning and evening rush hours. Since the start of the festive season, the number of trips has increased by 50 to 150% compared to the same period last year. “. Lime’s statistics show an increase of 60,000 people from 2023. Tier-Dott prefers to refer to the number of trips rather than the number of “passengers”. Users generally respect these instructions. If they leave the bikes anywhere, they know they will face penalties. Operators have also recruited employees to be stationed in temporary parking lots near stadiums and venues to provide guidance to customers, store bikes, and provide them with packages that suit their needs.
Operators said it was “too early” to make a commercial assessment of the first act of the Olympics and they remained tight-lipped about financial information.
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