The Truth About Vélib: Some People Are Left Out

I have psoriatic arthritis (shout out to all the other psoriasis-sufferers who made something out of themselves) and I often depend on exercise as my preferred form of pain relief.

I love bike riding more than almost anything on earth, maybe even more than eating and napping. I really love it because it helps to get my joints unstiff.

Sometimes before a run I go for a bikeride first because I can literally run 10x faster once my joints have been helped to become less stiff and painful and slow.

Word on the streets is that there is a very cheap bicycle service that is democratically available to everyone.

After 8 years of looking at the bikes lustfully (I had tried many times but was always rejected by the vélibs ; for one they don’t accept cash), my friend Anna and I finally went for a ride on the town. It was fantastic.

BUT…it took a week to get back the 150€ the vélib corporation took out of my bank account and that totally fucked me over.

Someone at the bank even factually explained it, not realizing that some of us can’t afford to be missing 150€ of our money for an entire week.

Despite doing everything right re: returning the bike in perfect condition and loving it like it were my own bike and all, I suffered considerably for not reason other than poverty, a lonely fact that seperates me from most everyone in France.

To say the least, I haven’t been back because I was so traumatized by my first experience; and for the record, vélib is not “a very cheap bicycle service that is democratically available to everyone.”

Update: I was in so much pain that painkillers were not helping to relieve that finally I broke down and went for a bike ride with the vélib system. It did not help the explosive aches in my calves. But, since realizing I was lacking adequate magnesium in my diet, I have regulated the problem and feel so, so much better.
That said, as a note, I wrote this post as a protective gesture towards all the poor who are marginalized and invisibilized in Paris, as I have been.