Vandalizing Neanderthals

Somehow, you just can't take the hoodlums out of society. Public property whose purpose is to increase quality of life, or to enhance the environment is just too tempting for those with a penchant toward destruction; alternating with those - certainly of a like anti-social clan-base - incapable of restraining themselves from purloining goods meant for the public interest.

Simply too tantalizing, the opportunity presented to them, to enhance their own interest in benefiting from ill-got gains.

So here's a highly praised project unveiled in Paris in July of 2007, where twenty-thousand bicycles were docked at stations throughout the city for residents and tourists to take advantage of, rather than use pollution-causing motor vehicles. These self-service bicycles, rented for about $1.50 an hour on an honour system.

Picked up handily at any of the kiosks around town, and later parked at any other kiosk once returned, the "Velibs" have been the subject of another type of self-service.

The enterprise was greeted with great acclaim at its initiation by environmentalists and cycling enthusiasts. A workable solution to congested roadways, and a terrific alternative to the expense of getting about by taxis. An opportunity for people to casually take temporary stewardship of a Velib [velo (cycle) liberte (free)] to enable them to zip around the city on errands or for recreational purposes, exercise, or sightseeing.

People being people, some of us responsible, others careless, while still others engaging in illicit and socially destructive activities have taken their toll of this socially responsible, municipality-initiated engagement in public transit alternatives.

On the far side of improbable, the bicycles continuing their useful transit opportunities in the winter months, have been implicated in the deaths of five users whose unfortunate ends resulted from accidents.

But since December, the plan launched by the socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, has begun launching in surrounding boroughs, and it is also being duplicated in foreign cities such as London, San Francisco and Singapore. They should look to Paris's experience as a cautionary tale.

The sad truth is that 11,600 of the grey bicycles lauded for their "damage-resistance" have been vandalized. And another 7,800 of the conveyances have simply vanished.

Young people have been using the handily-available bicycles for thrill seeking, performing daredevil stunts they film and set to rock music, posting them on the Internet. Inclusive of head-spinning descents down the stairs of the Montmartre hill, and gravity-defying leaps of bicycle-and-rider.

Tire slashing appears to be the social statement of preference of most of the junior vandals taking their place in society, according to the 500 repair personnel engaged by the project. Other bicycles have been hung from trees, thrown into the river and when all else fails, shipped out to foreign parts.

An expensive, taxpayer-supported loss, since their replacement cost is about $630 each. "We underestimated the degree of damage that they would suffer", admitted the marketing director of JCDecaux, the advertising company supplying them to the city.

The generosity and public-spiritedness of the plan to enhance opportunities for people to get around and help the environment, however, has greatly benefited far-flung places like eastern Europe and Africa, where many of the purloined conveyances have been discovered to have landed.

City authorities are not discouraged, however, and they will forge on with the project. In fact, they're planning to expand it with the introduction of an offshoot of the self-service transport plan: Autolibs
Uh, oh. International black-marketers in stolen vehicles will be rubbing their greasy hands in anticipation.