After bicycles, Paris tries self-service cars

Here is an update on the Vélib scheme, which has equipped Paris with thousands of self-service bikes since last July. The almost free bikes are no longer a novelty. They are part of the landscape, already a bit “last summer”. So now, Mayor Delanoe has come up with a new idea. This consists of self-service cars that you can pick up and park almost where you want, like the bikes.
First the bikes: On normal days, the parking bays are not enough to cope with the rush of morning commuters, leading to bike rage as people struggle to dock their machines down town near their work.
The colder wet weather and a few accidents have not done much to dim the enthusiasm with which Parisians use Vélibs to get to work or wobble home at night when taxis vanish (There are fewer taxis in Paris than before World War Two and most don't work at night). The bikes have been used for eight million trips so far and there will be 20,000 by the end of the year, the company that provides them in return for city advertising space. There has been one death -- a woman in her 50s who was crushed last month when a truck cut her off on the inside of a turn. The bikes now carry warnings to be careful of trucks and three training courses have been opened to help debutants get the hang of la bicyclette
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