Consumer empowerment is typically characterised by a lack of respect for traditional forms of authority and a spirit of creativity or self expression. Which is why we shouldn’t be too surprised to see how Paris’ self-service bicycle scheme (Velib) has fallen victim to a new empowerment craze, Velib extreme. Young Parisians are performing stunts, on what were originally described (somewhat naively) as ‘damage-resistant’ bicycles, filming their best moves and posting them on YouTube.
Boris is planning to introduce a similar scheme to London, so we can expect on onslaught of extreme cycling moves, broken limbs, trashed bikes and Daily Mail headlines bemoaning the end of civilisation as we know it … can’t wait.