Bike upgrades to France's Vélib' program
After a year in operation, the urban bike rental program Vélib' in France has recently announced Version 2.0 of the bicycle used in the program.
First, how is the program going? well, the Vélib's bikes were rented 31 million times!
And with that amount of usage, the designers learned some things about the bikes. Things that resulted in 4 specific upgrades to the bikes.
One of the upgrades is the safety sticker. It no longer lists general bike safety rules. Now it identifies the most common bike accident cause: riding the bike in the car drivers' blind spot. Car drivers are generally trying to drive safely, but if they can't see you because you are in their blind spot, then you are at a hugely increased risk of an accident. (key message: don't ride your bike in the car driver's blind spot: click here for more info on this "death zone."
Here is the link to the article, we found it very interesting (in french).
Aieee! Riding in the blind spot can really ruin your day.
posted by Cycle Fun Montreal @ 3:59 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Good job. Thanks. One other adjustment not mentioned in the original article, nor here, has been the addition of a small stress adjustment screw mechanism to permit the bike guys to quickly optimize the chain tension during their on-site controls. Nice.
i'd be interested to see an actual picture of a 2.0 bike. i want to see what the sticker looks like. i searched flickr, but nada.
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