Author Archives: jm

Gamification

Gamification is the use of elements related to games into non-game contexts. It means making people feeling the positive impacts of playing games from video games to board games. A lot of companies have used this technique to attract the attention to the products and services they sell in the last years. They have looked for improving user engagement, increase organizational productivity, flow, learning, crowdsourcing, employee recruitment and evaluation, ease of use, usefulness of systems, physical exercise, traffic violations, voter apathy and more. Yet the world of bikes has been used it to improve its use through marketing strategies.

The public bicycle system Bicing from Barcelona, implemented it through an app to accumulate points by riding bikes, achieving challenges or checking the stations anchors. Riders won awards thanks to these points. The Move Us project was launched by the public bus company in Madrid and works similarly as Bicing except from the fact that it focuses not only on bikers, but also on people in general.

Strava Metro uses gamification to help bikers to establish a track when they need to, plan bike lines and analyze the city traffic.

Bike and genre

Bicycles can be enjoyed by both, women and men. Nevertheless, the way both genres behave when riding use to be different. Studies say women tend to ride at lower speed without competing between them (at least at no professional level) and appreciate much more landscapes in routes, whereas men tend to be more competitive with more testosterone, ride at higher speed and do not put so much attention to sceneries.

At psychological level, women do not usually speak openly to men regarding common problems they face when biking. On the contrary, they feel more confident to talk about their issues to other women. Moreover, car drivers act differently in arguments with a bike ridden by a woman or a man. If a woman is biking and a dispute with a male car drive takes place, the car driver acts as a beast feeling he has the right to yield or insult the woman even if he is wrong and malicious in his reasoning (supposing he has one since sometimes he has nothing to clutch at straws). In contrast, if a man rides the bike, the male car driver does not show himself so aggressively as he innerly know he could loss in a fight. This animal behavior is another example of the patriarchal society we suffer.

Here I have exposed some reasons because women need women-gender spaces to share ideas and empower themselves. Feminism is a global movement which looks for women to have the same rights as men. Biking is just another field in which come out. As a result of it, changes have been producing. For example, the Iberian Congress was initially opened to both genres, but in the Zaragoza edition they decided to give a space only to women with the creation of the Cyclist Women Meeting. This meeting was repeated in the Valencia edition and it was agreed to differentiate it with an appropriate event by women to women. The Iberian Congress is not expected to count with the Cyclist Women Meeting anymore, which will be an independent event held in a different place and date.

Ciclointegración

Ciclointegración is the invented Spanish word for the integration of determined ways of transport. In a few words, it means that the weak and sustainable vehicles should be integrated into roads. By this I am referring to bicycles, skates, skateboards, scooters, etc. People who drive these should be treated as drivers since they drive vehicles and thus they should move on roads instead of sidewalks. Sidewalks should only belong to pedestrians.

Compare this idea with what is happening now. The vehicles I am talking about enjoy particular areas or lines sometimes stolen to walkers. So pedestrians feel city surface belonging to them is less and less. And do not forget, we all are pedestrian at first and then drivers. So pedestrian areas should be respected above all. Furthermore, potential crashes are avoided with ciclointegración for example between bicycles and people walking on sidewalks who are looking their mobiles or blind people.

Integration means do not create ghettos for green, cycle vehicles, better integrate them into roads. Moreover, thanks to this integration traffic is calmed as they move slower compared to cars and motorbikes. In turn, quality of life is increased, pollution is reduced and, in the long run, some intelligent people would probably stop driving cars because they would realize cars are not worth it.

Criticona 2019

Criticona is the annual Critical Mass in Spain. This huge event moves from city to city thanks to the democratic choice made by the participants in the previous year. It is coordinated by cyclists to riders. Urban cycling is motivated through different activities which are adapted to the organizing place. The organization offers free accommodation and cheap food to make it easy for visitors. Hence, the key target constitutes forming a gigantic Critical Mass since it is the country Critical Mass from the cities Critical Masses.

This year the Criticona will take place in Madrid. A fantastic group of bikers has been working on it for months. The programming can be consulted in the organization official blog (in Spanish). Basically, it starts on 25th April and ends on 28th April. The events per day are specified:

– 25th: Non-mixed riding (riding only for women) + The monthly Madrid Critical Mass

– 26th: Cyclist women experiences discussion + Bike-tapas

– 27th: Meloncleta + Picnic + Event to claim for intermodality + Interplanetary Critical Mass + Party

– 28th: Non-mixed riding (riding only for women) + Historic riding + Picnic

It is highly advisable that you fill the official form if you come from a place other than Madrid.

You can not miss it!

The Bike Equity Network

As in many countries, the USA has a lot of groups which enjoy the bicycle. Among them, there is the Bike League. Its main aim is to “make bicycling safe and comfortable for people of all ages in all communities” with special stress on youth, women and people of color who are underrepresented in many bike efforts and local transportation decisions. And they are right! In too many cases politicians do not take into account the more vulnerable people. If laws are focused on healthy, white, middle age men, they leave other people unprotected. Moreover, the sum of youth, women and people of color (plus senior citizens) makes the majority of USA population. To fulfill this target, they count with an Equity Advisory Council since 2013.

The more people ride bikes, the better the life for everyone. They also establish to strength communities and make them safer and better connected. Cars do not fit in this concepts melting pot and people are in the center. As they affirm, they see bike advocacy as a civic engagement opportunity, and all ways of experiencing biking and streets matter.

History says the League was founded as the League of America Wheelmen back in 1880. Wheelmen were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers and pedestrians at that time.

They count with key programs such as Bicycle friendly America, Smart cycling, Promoting bicycling or Making biking better throughout which they develop most of its activities.

Titiribici

Titiribici is the artistic name of Pablo Olias, a Sevillian adventurer who rode 22,000 km in South America. He enjoyed marvelous landscapes and possibly suffered from extreme climate conditions from warm areas to snow, from mountains to salt lakes. Take into account the countries he visited: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentina and Uruguay. Up until now, this amazing travel constitutes a great achievement, but in reality it is even greater. Not only did he rode his bike in those countries, he also did it by stretching a trailer inside which he kept his puppets. He represented a show in every village he arrived. This fact made him popular among the people and above all the children. Thousands had fun with the stories and also organized a workshop so that children could manufacture puppets, sets, scripts and developed several ideas to create stories, to set free the imagination.

He started playing with puppets 25 years ago and still preserves the pixide of this period. He has a webpage (http://www.titiribici.com) on which you can have an idea of this magic travel on a bike. Do not miss his impressive video (https://youtu.be/R0IxSo1oZXM). From this experience, he always brings his puppets with him as they can be called his close friends.

Ciclocostura

Ciclostura is the Spanish name of the art of making accessories from parts of bikes. Have you ever dream about a belt made of a tyre and a sprocket, or a backpack which most of its parts come from tyres? It sounds crazy and yet is possible. Each and every part of a bicycle can be recycled. In this case, the world of fashion is enriched with the variety of accessories and styles which are offered by Kaiowa. This Valencian company takes advantage of those bike objects which are rejected as the bicycle gets old. Tyres, inner tubes, bearings, sprockets, chains, trouser clips, you name it, are given a second life in order to allow more people benefit from bike. Usually, bikers have an ecological thinking and try to cooperate shoulder to shoulder with actions to reduce waste, noise and pollution, and improve quality of life.

Bike and health

Riding a bike is commonly understood as a way to practice aerobic exercise since there is not need to carry too much weight and its design eases riding even for fat people. Nevertheless, there are improvements like rear racks, bicycle trailers or bags which make it even light. From a healthy point of view, studies across the world have been done to determine to which degree riding is beneficial to people. The overwhelming literature conclude how good is to ride. By making regular cycling, the risk of death from all causes is cut by more than 40% and the reduction in the risk of cancer and heart disease is 45% (https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1456). Mental health is also boost by biking. And the benefits are not only experienced by individuals’ health, but also the whole society (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/04/death-air-pollution-cut-if-uk-hits-walking-and-cycling-targets).

Just to name one paper, a scientific study (among others) (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/08/cycling-keeps-your-immune-system-young-study-finds) demonstrates that cycling makes younger the immune system. Kind of rejuvenate oneself. It is marvelous. Moreover, it preserves muscles and helps maintaining controlled levels of body fat and cholesterol. Better than taking drugs, biking is an excellent allied for senior citizens. There is no need to use face creams to hold back the effects of ageing. Just ride a bicycle!

Ciclosfera

Ciclosfera is the name of the most important Spanish urban bike magazine. Its name comes from the words ciclo (cycle) and esfera (sphere), remembering the shape of the bike wheels, its movement and symbolically the non-stop evolution of it. It is the most popular one in Spain with around 100 pages. You can find it at bike stores and workshops in more than twenty-seven cities. Adds and subscribers fund it to allow it being totally free. What is it so important? Among the team of good reporters who write exciting articles, there is a wide range of themes which are treated. Security, bike-friendly cities, interviews, thrift stores, the last fashion, good photos, news, architecture, personages, followers interactions, round tables, cartoons, you name it. The last products from bike firms and parts producers are shown as well as bike culture in the broadest sense of its meaning. This quarterly magazine goes down a treat of urban bikers and gives ideas about how to improve a bike, a ride or the next travel. Furthermore, the most exciting bike events come under in a specific section every three months. It is extremely complicated to think about a subject which is not cover by Ciclosfera.

You can check it on www.ciclosfera.com (in Spanish). It is also presented in the social networks.

Open Cycle Map

Bike lines represent a good and safety infrastructure for cyclists when we want to ride the city and have been an essential part for the boom of environmentally friendly ways of transport. One can be used to riding on them in well-known places. But the problem comes when we want or need to do it in unknown places. There are some tips to face it like asking a friend or relative who lives there or searching the web for specific information. This last point can be tedious specially when you do not have a clear target to focus on and one can abort the search after a fruitless waste of time.

It would be great if all the bike lines in the world would be collected in the sense of having just one website with the whole information. Well, it already exists. Open Cycle Map offers this and much more under a free schema. The accurate world map allows looking for bike lines in whatever country by using the zoom + / – on the left-hand side. Moreover, this impressive web points out bike parking, bike shops, bike rental shops, toilets, cafes, drinking water, hospitals, post boxes, you name it (https://www.opencyclemap.org/docs). If you are planning a bike trip, this is your reference web.