Solidarity Initiative: Bikes for Hospitals

Last week, Eliette Vincent, the founder of Cocolis, took part in a round table organised by the MAIF START UP CLUB. The purpose of this conference (listen or replay here): solidarity initiatives born out of the Coronavirus crisis. On the Cocolis side, we presented our solidarity delivery service. But this video conference was also an opportunity to discover great projects such as Lita, Ma Ville Engagée and Bikes for Hospitals. Today, we wanted to tell you about this last initiative. Set up in no time at all, it has already helped many healthcare workers.

A finding: motionless bikes...

While we are all confined at home, our bikes are no longer or rarely used. In big cities like Lyon or Paris, sometimes more than a thousand bicycles are not being ridden anymore.

...healthcare workers more in demand than ever

At the same time, healthcare workers must continue to go to their workplace while avoiding contaminating or being contaminated. Their journeys sometimes take place at times when public transport is no longer running. The bicycle is the ideal means of transport... You get the idea: lend unused bicycles to healthcare workers who really need them. The project was started by a young woman, Nina Gouze, herself a cyclist.

Why not offer all healthcare workers a way to use available bikes, to make their journeys in the city easier, when their shifts don't match public transport schedules and to limit the risk of contamination? Nina Gouze,

From idea to project, it was just a step (or almost).

A matching platform

With the help of Timothée Emery (lead dev), the website: https://www.desvelospourlhosto.fr/ was launched. This matching platform is very easy to use. Whether you have a bike to lend or are looking for one nearby, it only takes a few minutes to take action.

Launched on 3 April, this site has already enabled nearly 2,000 healthcare workers to borrow bikes to get to work. The project is supported by the FUB, MAIF and l’atelier chenapans.

If you have a bike "sleeping" at home, you now know that in just a few clicks, you can give it a great new purpose.