Because Paris is one of the largest cities in the world there is no way that you can efficently move around the city by walking. Sometimes the weather is so nice, you don't want to spend your afternoon riding around a hot and sticky metro either.
Enter the Velib bike system.
Paris was late to join the green initiative and start a municipal bike sharing program. Their program began in 2007 and was an instant hit. Within 2 months, the self service bikes clocked about 3.7 million rides and are changing the way people move around Paris. Everyone from tourists to businessmen seem to be enjoying seeing the city from a new perspective.
The concept of the bike system is that you check one out, ride around for up to one day or week perhaps and then return the bike to one of the many stands around the city. When planning the system, they scattered the stands about 300 m from each other so you are never far from renting a bike.
I have not rented a bike yet, but I see people riding them all the time now that it is spring. It is an ingenious system since the majority of residents do not own cars.
Paris has even expanded the system into renting self service cars as well. There not as many of these kiosks around, but I laugh every time I see one because they are such a foreign concept back in America.
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