Users of the Vel'oh bike-sharing system are finding it increasingly difficult to find available bicycles. “The Vel'oh are victims of a lot of damage, especially in one district, the station”, (DP), mayor of Luxembourg City, said on Tuesday.
The Vel'oh bike-sharing scheme had been on the agenda at the municipal council meeting on Monday, with the authorities citing figures that show 80% of vandalism to Vel'oh bikes takes place in the station area, while 250 of the 1,200 bikes that should be operational in the network are currently unaccounted for.
The city says it has discussed the problem with Vel'oh operator JCDecaux, and has even suggested installing trackers on the bikes in order to geolocate them. One problem is that since the introduction of electric bikes in the Vel'oh system, users are travelling much further than the capital and the outlying communes at which Vel'oh stations are also located. One device was even spotted in Arlon, 30km from Luxembourg City.
JCDecaux is confronted with something of which it had no previous experience.
Rising demand
“The number of subscribers has exploded since the introduction of the electric assisted bikes. It makes the Vel'oh more attractive, it is a bit of a victim of its own success,” said deputy mayor (CSV).
He pointed out that Luxembourg is the first city where the operator has installed a network of fully electrically assisted bicycles: “JCDecaux is confronted with something it had no previous experience in,” Wilmes added.
A Vel'oh was found at the station in Arlon, 30km from Luxembourg City. (Photo: Maison Moderne)
To top it all off, many of the bikes are currently out of service and waiting to be repaired. But the equation is complicated by the shortage of spare parts and tightness on the bicycle market. For example, current orders to equip new stations planned for Walferdange have been delayed for between 12 and 18 months.
Appeal to the Grand-Ducal police
For the City of Luxembourg, the problem lies not with the service provider, but with the use of the equipment. “We need more surveillance,” says Polfer, because the current situation “confirms the decisions taken in the past”, when .
Around the pirate ship, there are not so many drug addicts.
The mayor is once again looking to the police for assistance. She has already in the central districts of the capital.
"Around the pirate ship, we don't see as many drug addicts anymore," she said. But she says the situation is still precarious, as shown by the attack on a lady in charge of the toilets in the park: "This has nothing to do with a feeling of insecurity, these are facts,” says the mayor.
The City of Luxembourg is reiterating its appeal to the police for a greater presence of officers on the streets. It is currently monitoring another aspect affecting the urban environment: the increase in waste generated in public parks, which are very popular during the summer. For example, some 103 tonnes were collected in 2018, but that rose to 232 tonnes last year in the capital's parks alone.