Pensioners with baguettes wedged into the handlebar basket. Lawyers and businessmen with briefcases. Well-dressed women, (but of course), in high heels.

The bikes are gray, clunky workhorses with fenders, fat tires and comfortable seats. Despite appearances, they are high-tech, equipped with antitheft and global positioning devices and they represent the wave of the future. Or so many, including Philadelphia community activist Russell Meddin, hope.

Meddin, 57, has helped organize a public forum, to be held at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Academy of Natural Sciences, with the hope of starting a bike-sharing program in Philadelphia.

Paris launched its program, Velib, in July with 10,000 virtually free-to-use bikes. Ever since, Parisians have experienced a coup de foudre (passionate crush, what else?) over this new way to get where they need to go. There are now more than 20,000 bicycles in the fleet, electronically locked in more than 2,000 automated parking stations. With a deposit of $225, you register for short- or long-term use. A one-day pass costs about $1.50, a weekly pass $7.50, and an annual subscription $44 with no extra charge for rides less than 30 minutes. Users swipe a credit or subscription card at an ATM-like machine to release the bicycles. Additional charges are automatically deducted for extended rentals: $1.50 for the first extra half-hour, $3 for the second, and $6 beyond that.

Other cities have different arrangements and, with smaller fleets, annual subscription costs may be much higher - as much as $250.

The idea that Philadelphia, with its oppressive traffic, reckless drivers, rampant thieves, vandals and other assorted miscreants, would behave honorably enough to sustain such a system may seem dubious. Too kind? All right. An absurd, unthinkable, are-you-kidding bad joke.

But cities with problems as bad as Philadelphia's have pulled it off, Meddin says.

In most cases, theft is averted by the need for a credit card to get into the system, plus the bicycles contain GPS devices to track where and by whom they have been taken. They are designed so that their parts are unique and can't be easily jerry-rigged onto mainstream models. And, particularly in cities with large-scale programs, would-be thieves have little incentive to steal a bike because they are plentiful and virtually free to use.

Meddin first witnessed bike sharing in 2006 when he visited his daughter during her junior year abroad in Lyon.

"I saw the future," he said. "This could solve some of our problems." Reduce traffic congestion in Center City, encourage healthier lifestyles, improve the air quality, save people money and time.

"You can ride to most places on a bike through Center City in 10 to 15 minutes less than by car during rush hour," he said based on personal experience.

Pittsburgh has a small program, 30 bicycles available for recreational rides along riverside bike paths. Rome is about to start one. Beijing, San Francisco and Portland, Ore., are considering plans and so is Chicago, whose mayor, Richard Daley, tested a Velib velo in Paris last summer and came back a fan.

There are a variety of ways to pay for the programs, which grew out of informal "painted bike" arrangements on college campuses in the 1970s.