In Lyon the public ad space was traded to an ad company in exchange for funding and maintaining the city's public bike share scheme. It's a trade off, of course, but for just 30 euros à year I (and the rest of the city) get virtually unlimited bike share.

The anti-ad groups here would be happy for the public ads to disappear but it would be a real shame if the affordable bike share went with it.

FWIW there is a real debate about who got the better side of the deal between the city and the ad company, but the Velov scheme is great. :)