Cycling conference delegates in Paris

At first you're a bit at a loss. How on earth can I get this bike out of its storage? It won't work without a credit card and you shouldn't be put off by a 150 EUR deposit. But apart from that you can have a ball riding a bike in Paris. Every congress participant or incentive traveller should use a bike at least once while staying in Paris. Now there are over 10,000 bikes available in 750 Vélib stations, where you can pick a bike out of a storage at a bargain price, ride anywhere you want and leave the bike in whichever station you prefer. You have to keep track of your Vélib ticket (a contraction of 'vélo' and 'liberté') because the system might display some growing pains now and then. During the quiet month of August I've done some cycling in Paris myself: over 70 km. I've pedalled down the Champs-Elysées and I couldn't live without it now. There were two types of drivers I feared: taxi drivers and bus drivers! But I've been able to experience that cyclists have a calming effect on traffic and make a valuable contribution to the battle against pollution. Hats off to the Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë who aims to have 1451 stations in Paris by the end of the year - that's about one every 300 meters - with a total of 20,600 bikes. The bicycle has made its appearance in London as well but Cyclocity in Brussels proved a fiasco! Cities with bikes, I dream about them!
Last week I had an animated conversation about this dream with Paul Roll, General Manager of the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau: 'Oh, Monsieur Marcel, the bike has changed Paris a little. Parisians are talking more to visitors and have become more helpful. And the cyclist could experience that Paris isn't such a flat town after all. Paris has its little hills and that might demand a bigger physical effort now and then.'
I have a nice detail for Paul Roll. A new study of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel about bikes showed that cycling makes you stronger on a psychological level as well. While you're riding a bike, stress is disappearing, you're taking in fresh air, you're not stuck in traffic and you get home with no worries on your mind. Having people riding a bike makes them withstand the daily stress better. A subject for a new world congress in Paris!