Written by by Cécile Aubrias, CNN
In the upscale shopping district of Grenoble, in the eastern French city of eastern France, two of the city’s busiest streets are redesigned every three to five years.
Pas de Deux aren’t usually crowded, but on the night of February 23, the sidewalks were quite full.
The reason: Vélib, or bicycle-sharing, is giving Grenoble the biggest boost in the country’s new Public Bikes program (which started in August, 2018). Around 30,000 riders a day, in between shopping on Rue de la Fleurien and the Montmartre Market, use the free pedal-powered bikes, which come in three types: electric (up to 20 miles per hour), high capacity (25 miles per hour) and standard.
You can’t forget the bollards though: Near the Montmartre Market, these safety barriers are blocking most of the sidewalks.
Normally, these barriers would go in place in front of these sidewalks. Instead, they have been allowed to line the entire street to prevent these classes of bikes from passing — and visitors and locals just take it in stride.