When it comes to promoting environmentally correct city-transport, Paris is really on the forefront. In July 2007, the city introduced thousands of public rental-bikes known as Vélibs, which immediately became very popular among tourists and locals. Now Paris wants to follow up the successful formula and recently Mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced that the city is about to launch a similar program with electric cars called Automobiles-en-Libre-Service.

As was the case of the Vélibs, the so-called Voiturelibs will be placed at pick-up stations around town where tourists and residents can get a car 24-hours a day, drive off and leave it at another station in Paris. The fee for renting a non-polluting Voiturelib will be cheap (a few euro an hour depending on mileage) and there is no need to book ahead.

The plan is to start up the system with 2,000 Voiturelibs and see how it works out. The city is looking at two types of electric vehicles. A car known as the Blue Car project, which is a three-seater capable of travelling 250 kilometers between charges or the Cleanova (picture), developed by the Dassault aviation firm, which uses the body of the small Renault Kangoo van.

Mayor Delanöe aims to make Paris the world’s eco-capital, and to show an example he gets around the city in a tiny electric-powered Citroën Saxo. He is France’s most popular Socialist and is likely to run for president (after etablishing an eco-friendly image).

Author David Rich Momondo

Related posts:

London’s two-wheel revolution 

TO / FROM THE AIRPORT

Charles de Gaulle or Orly

Line B stops at Gare du Nord, Châtelet les Halles and Saint-Michel. It takes a little more than half and hour and costs around 9 Euros. The best way to get to the center.

GETTING AROUND IN PARIS

The Metro is fantastic! The trains are fast and frequent and there are stops at every other street corner, it seems. The only problem is that it closes between around 1 A.M. – 6 A.M. The RER trains that go the suburbs and the airports also cross Paris and stop at some of the bigger metro stops. If you are going from one place to another within Paris where the RER stops, choose that option, since it is even faster than the metro.

Only take the bus if you have plenty of time and you find it charming to wait forever or be stuck in traffic without the running meter of a taxicab.
Taxies can be very hard to get. They are not supposed to stop in the street within a certain distance from a taxi stop. But they will do it, if they get a chance to and are not too busy – which is rare. On weekends and late at night, it can become a real nightmare to find a taxi, and the lines at the taxi stops can be frighteningly long.

By Katrine Salomon