The tinkle of bicycle bells will temper the fury of Paris traffic next month when the city puts 10,000 self-service cycles on to the streets. Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor, opened 20-model docking stations this week to aquaint Parisians with le Vélib, the hefty but elegant bicyclette that is supposed to transform the way Parisians and visitors get around.

On July 15 more than 1,400 stations will open – one every 300 yards – to supply bicycles that will be almost free for the first half-hour. In the most ambitious scheme of its type in the world, 20,600 Vélib bikes will be on the streets by the end of the year.

“We want to shake up people’s mentalities,” said Céline Lepault, head of the scheme, whose name is a contraction of velo (bike) and liberté. “People tell us that they love to bicycle, but in the country, not the city. We want them to realise the huge advantages that it brings in a place like Paris in terms of time savings, health, environment and lifestyle.”

The scheme, modelled on successful versions in cities such as Lyon and Bordeaux, fits the campaign by the Socialist mayor to bring a sense of fun and youthful energy to the city. The bikes, equipped with baskets and mudguards, are designed for the professional classes, tourists and students. Registration fees for the three-speed bicycles are €29 (£20) a year, €5 a week or €1 a day. The second half-hour costs €1 and the rate rises to €8 an hour after three and a half hours.

Mr Delanoe, a longtime green campaigner, intends to reduce traffic flow by 40 per cent by 2020. He has created hundreds of kilometres of cycle and bus lanes, increasing congestion deliberately to deter private cars and commercial vehicles from the relatively compact capital. But the stress of mixing with the city’s gladiatorial drivers has deterred cyclists. Of the capital’s 2.5 million residents, 40,000 use bicycles daily. Mr Delanoe hopes that the convenience of his velos will turn 250,000 people into regulars by the end of the year. He said that the bicycles would give Parisians a new sense of “pleasure, freedom, innovation and performance”.

The new administration of President Sarkozy has been setting an example. Two ministers swapped their limousines for bicycles in Paris this week, including Alain Juppé, the deputy Prime Minister, who heads a new Environment and Transport superministry.

Christine Lambert, president of the Travel Better by Bike association, said that experience showed that mass bike rentals did not reduce traffic. “But we hope that people will take the chance to try it and see that it is possible to get around by bike and . . . that it is not dangerous,” she said. However, cyclists are grumbling about the punishing 20kg (45lb) weight. “I pity anyone trying to go up to Montmartre,” said an assistant in a cycle shop near the Opéra.

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