Barcelona City Council is restricting the use of bicycles and scooters on a large number of streets in Ciutat Vella. The government of Mayor Jaume Collboni made public yesterday Thursday the installation of dozens of signs spread across 25 streets in this district that encourage users of these means of transportation to get out of their vehicle and continue on foot. In one way or another, in many cases, the regulations already required this. What happens is that many people ignored their obligations or simply ignored them. The local executive now tries to leave no room for doubt, to make it clear where these vehicles can and cannot circulate. The objective of installing these new signs, he argues, is to reduce coexistence conflicts.
For years the City Council has been trying to regulate pedaling on the narrowest roads in Ciutat Vella, especially encouraging it in the main ones, such as Hospital, Sant Antoni Abat, Carme, Ferran… In this way it also tries to pacify many roads. unique platform where the pedestrian is forced to constantly dribble bicycles, the increasingly common personal mobility vehicles (VMP), vans, goods carts, cars of residents and visitors who dare to circulate in these parts, excursions tourists on foot or on the back of any junk…
The problem is that a good part of these main roads that the City Council is trying to promote are designed above all to cross the district, from one side to the other. And with the latest vetoes, internal movements seem very complicated. Hence, a few hours after the announcement of the placement of the new signs, the Gòtic neighborhood association, the neighborhood where most of them are located, posted a message on the X network to denounce that the municipal measures harm daily mobility. of the neighbors. In addition, the ways of the municipal government also aroused some discomfort.
“People are upset at the lack of participation in such an important issue,” they say in the Gòtic neighborhood association. We have learned of the measure from the press. And analyzing the selected streets we see that the City Council’s criteria are economic, that its objective is to protect visitors from the most commercial streets, ignoring the needs of the people who live here. Why are bicycles banned on Salomó Ben Adret street and not in Còdols? Well, because Còdols is not so crowded. We also do not understand why they put these signs on streets like Avinyó or Escudellers, where cars and motorcycles pass. In the Gòtic, overcrowding brings many problems. But the City Council is ignoring the fact that people still live here. The fight against overcrowding has to make the lives of the neighbors easier, not complicate it more.”
In any case, at least for now, the new signs are going rather unnoticed, as if they were decorative elements. If you stand next to them, you will see that the vast majority of bicycle and scooter users leave them behind very quickly. It already happened in the seven points they won last November, outside of Ciutat Vella –Sant Andreu. Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and Les Corts–, where cyclists and VMP drivers riding their vehicles as if nothing were still frequent.
The City Council argues that the new signs, round blue, indicating mandatory, are much clearer than those that existed on some of the prohibition streets (round, white with red edges). In the new ones, a cyclist and a scooter user are seen carrying their vehicles on foot. In this initial phase, pedagogy is prioritized over sanctions. Starting next week, teams of municipal informants will explain the news. This does not prevent, municipal sources assure, the Urban Police from denouncing those who ignore these indications. The penalties in these cases can reach 500 euros.
In the first phase of implementation, new signs were placed at seven points, which were added to two others that were already being tested. And it was reported that another thirty would join, whose locations were being studied with the technical services of the districts. Yesterday 25 were announced, all in Ciutat Vella. Why only in the historic district? The reason is the large number of narrow streets it has, many with great activity that generates problems of coexistence between users of the public road. It is, therefore, about putting order. Not in vain, this action is part of Pla Endreça, Mayor Collboni’s stellar measure for the improvement of public space. In any case, new locations in other districts will be studied.
In reality, in most of the 25 streets of Ciutat Vella that have the sign for the first time, there was already a ban on riding VMPs or bicycles. On single platform roads – the pavement is at the same level throughout the section, from facade to facade, the traffic ordinance establishes that these vehicles cannot circulate less than one meter from the facade and that in any case they must take extreme care. Pay attention to the incorporation of people who leave the buildings onto the street. This is difficult, if not impossible, in many ways. But in case there was any doubt, in some sections there were already prohibition signs (the white ones with a red border), which have been maintained along with the new blue ones.