Velib': Sustainable Market Space?

Velib' is a station bicycle system in which rented bicycles can be picked up in one station and returned to a different one, and is an initiative of the mayor of Paris in partnership with JCDecaux, the giant advertising company. The system has been an instant success, with 50 million users in its first two years of operations. But Velib' is costly to build and maintain raising questions about it long-term viability

By applying the case, teachers are able to: (i) explore the basic features of Velib', the self-service biking system in operation in paris since 2007; (ii) expose students to the counter-intuitive ownership of the system, and the history of the public-private partnership between the Municipality of Paris and JCDecaux; (iii) provoque students to think about the business rationale of the system, and; (vi) confront the business rationale (private profits) with the logic of sustainable mobility (public benefits).