“We thought we would double the number of users. We were wrong. It was multiplied by six.“Luc François is all smiles as he takes stock of the first year of using the Electric veliverts. Launched on June 1, 2023 by the metropolis of Saint-Étienne (Loire), the 1,050 bicycles in the fleet have served well. In some 700,000 trips, users of these totally electric machines have traveled a total of 2 million kilometers.
It has become a reflex for many of them. Naël, 16 years old, uses it “at least once a day“, whether to go from Saint-Genest-Lerpt to high school or to go out in the city center of Saint-Etienne with his friends. At thirty euros per subscription, the teenager is seduced, just like Ibrahima who lives at the Metare. More practical than the bus, faster than the car for short journeys, he only sees advantages, which Bastien also notices: there are not enough of them in the stations, or some are. degraded.
Misuse that causes damage
According to the Force Ouvrière Saint-Étienne-métro-cité union, more than 600 bicycles are constantly out of service, largely due to misuse: people who ride two on it while standing on the axle of the rear wheel. Luc François recognizes that this misuse causes breakage, but refutes this figure. The vice-president in charge of transport assures that currently, the number of bicycles available is normal : only 20% of the 1,050 Véliverts are under repair, an ordinary proportion for a fleet of self-service bicycles.
Given the success, he is waiting until the end of the year to see if the number of subscriptions remains fixed. Depending on the results, Saint-Étienne Métropole could order new Véliverts from the community’s 2025 budget.
