The bike lane is a space designed, at least on paper, for bicycles – and scooters – to circulate safely. The reality, on the other hand, is that it often becomes an obstacle course for those who use these means of transport. When it’s not a car parked two minutes in the middle, it’s a motorcycle overtaking or a van turning over the bike lane without respecting priority. It is the main complaint expressed by the respondents, 93%, in the fifth edition of the RACC barometer of cycling mobility in Barcelona, ??in which 61% say that they have suffered imprudent advances that have put them at risk, more than half have have been harassed by a car or motorbike that did not respect the safety distance and 44% have been insulted.
Despite the stumbles and risks encountered in everyday life, the bicycle is an option that continues to gain followers. In recent years, its use has increased by 77% during weekdays, and the data of the annual barometer produced by the mobility club prove it. So much so that even the bike lanes criticized at the time by the same club, such as the one in Ganduxer, now have three times as many users as when they opened and their meaning, which was then questioned, is now more than justified.
The increase in the use of cycle lanes is so great that the RACC has applied for the first time the technique used to measure the flow of traffic on the roads, and the result in some places is truly alarming. The Diagonal, Gran Via and Paral·lel bike lanes have a service level D in a classification that goes from A (fluidity) to F (collapse), it is therefore considered a service with many conflicts . It would be the equivalent of the orange color that a road would have on the traffic map during rush hour. In the case of bike lanes, it means that people go much slower than expected, because the possibilities of moving forward are rather scarce due to the narrowness of the existing infrastructure. “There are bike lanes that should be wider, with two lanes in each direction… At this point, they can die of success, an overall vision is needed and the cycling network should be prioritized with main and secondary roads”, he says Cristian Bardají, director of the RACC mobility area. The incorporation of scooters in recent years, up to representing approximately one third of the vehicles that circulate on the bike lanes, has increased their use and conflicts, since if the cyclists surveyed have a crush on anyone, it is precisely scooters, ahead of even buses, trucks and vans.
Whether with more scooters or less, the hierarchy proposed by the RACC would involve enhancing the most frequented bike lanes, and occupying for example the entire side of Diagonal and Gran Via, as at some point the previous municipal government came to propose, all and that the authors of the report prefer not to specify solutions like this, which would create discomfort among drivers. In fact, the president of the RACC, Josep Mateu, believes that, in addition to the expansion of some lanes, others should also be eliminated, and he agrees with Jaume Collboni in the need to “reevaluate” the controversial Via Augusta project.
The observation made by the study is not limited to the center of the Catalan capital, it also addresses the accesses, and it is precisely there that some of the highest levels of use of the bike lanes are located, thus endorsing the successful commitment to connections metropolitan areas promoted in recent years by the vice-president of Mobility of the Metropolitan Area of ??Barcelona (AMB), Antoni Poveda. The entry and exit of Barcelona via the Gran Via from Hospitalet and via the iconic Esplugues footbridge above the Ronda de Dalt count more than 150 bikes per hour every morning, figures higher than streets of the Eixample, such as Paris, and axes of other neighborhoods, such as Pujades in Poblenou and Creu Coberta in Sants.
“The bicycle is no longer urban, it’s metropolitan”, proclaims Bardají, who calls for the unification of the shared public bicycle systems of Barcelona (Bicing) and the AMB (AMBici) to be clear when the respective contracts in force end on 2029. Until then, there will be no other option but to combine them both in the best possible way, despite the fact that half of the respondents say they would travel within the metropolitan area if they could. The recent launch of Metropolitan Bicing – which forces you to change bikes but at least allows you to make these journeys – is already included in the RACC barometer and already represents 4%.
Among the large amount of data presented yesterday, there is also reference to the risk behaviors recognized by the respondents themselves. 71% recognize that red lights are passed when there are no motor vehicles nearby, 20% more than last year. 63% also admit that they cycle above the permitted speed, 19% more than in 2022. Also, 49% say that they do not make maneuvers with their arm to warn of turning or changing lanes, while in the previous edition of the barometer they were 42%.
The use of punishable distractions is lower. 34% talk on the mobile phone sometimes and 39% put on headphones to listen to music. On the other hand, six out of ten adult cyclists say that they wear a helmet most of the time, despite the fact that it is not mandatory for those over 16 in the urban environment.
Between one thing and another, the cyclists themselves give their civic behavior a 6.2. They give the pedalable network the worst rating, scoring an average of 5.4 out of 10. And although it may seem to some that there are bike lanes everywhere, nine out of ten cyclists complain that they can’t do all their usual routes on safe, segregated roads. Of those that exist, the best grade is given to the Diagonal bike path, with a 6.3, and the worst to the Gran Via bike path between Plaça Espanya and Plaça Cerdà, which still runs along the sidewalk at side of the pedestrians and that suspend with a 4.6.
