PARIS: In the two years since it began operating, the bikesharing programme in the French capital has won the hearts of Parisians.
But the community bikes of Vélib, as the programme is called, are appealing to more than just the hearts of cyclists.
They are also proving an irresistible target for thieves and vandals, prompting the city to launch a public service ad campaign this month to convince the public to treat their bikes better.
"I've seen bikes with just the frames left, but docked at a Vélib station," said Mr Alexandre Wente, a 32-year-old Paris real estate salesman who makes it a point to cycle to work at least once a week.
"I've seen the baskets twisted partly off. I've seen kids ride (the bikes) down stairs to the river," he said, as he unlocked a bike from a station near the Place Léon Blum in south-east Paris.
"It's like people can't help themselves." Launched by the city in July 2007, Vélib has placed 20,000 bicycles at nearly 1,000 stations around Paris.
The bikes can be rented for a minimal fee, with the first half-hour free.
Like other such programmes across Europe and North America, the idea behind Vélib - a contraction of the words "vélo" (bicycle) and "liberté" (freedom) - was to reduce traffic in the city and relieve some of the pressure on overloaded bus and subway systems.
Nearly a quarter of a million people have signed up as Vélib subscribers, allowing them to unlock a bike using their public transit pass instead of putting down a deposit with a credit card.
The mayor's office said Parisians take an average of 78,000 trips each day on Vélib bikes.
But as much as Parisians have taken to Vélib, they are also taking - and wrecking - the bikes at an unanticipated rate.
In an effort to counter the alarming rate of vandalism, the city has put up posters showing a brutish character ripping a Vélib bike apart.
"Breaking a Vélib is easy," the posters read, "but that's no excuse."
The ad campaign comes at an opportune time. Since the programme began, 8,000 Vélib bicycles have been stolen from docking stations where they were not locked properly. Nearly 1,400 people were arrested last year alone for Vélib theft.
Police have retrieved about 100 bikes from the depths of Paris canals and the Seine River. Some have been spotted on balconies.
The chunky khaki-coloured bicycles, each weighing about 22.5kg, were built to be sturdy, but they are not indestructible. About 16,000 bicycles have been vandalised in one way or another.
Some of the damage is benign. Pictures of Vélib bikes painted bright pink, for example, can be found on the Internet.
But, as can be seen on a stroll through any neighbourhood, other bicycles have been left on sidewalks or rental stations, crippled by broken chains, missing tyres and baskets, or defaced with graffiti.
Ms Sandrine Lebrousse, a 45-year-old housewife living in Paris, saw teenagers casually dismembering a Vélib bicycle on the public transit system just this week.
"They were laughing and pulling pieces off of it and throwing them onto the tracks from the window," she said. "Nobody said a thing. Because the bikes belong to everybody, no one seems to take personal responsibility."
