Author Archives: jm

The European Mobility Week

The European Mobility Week started improving the sustainable movement in cities transportation. The European Commission created this event to give citizens alternatives to the use of cars in cities. Today, more than 2,312 cities from 48 countries follow this annual event and carry on with at least 551 mobility actions with the aim of promoting clean mobility. In addition, the European Mobility Week awards cities which have been doing a great effort to the path of sustainable mobility.

It also offers advices on how to cheer up green mobility in cities through European cities and beyond experiences in its Best Practice Guide in the 2017 edition. On the other hand, if you are a local authority, it is a good idea checking this handbook (http://www.mobilityweek.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/materials/participation_resources/2017/2017_EMW_Handbook.pdf), whereas if you want to organize a campaign or just want to be enlighten, have a look at the Thematic guidelines. The circle is closed as local authorities are encouraged to use it to test new transport measures and give back opinions from citizens. Local stakeholders can then discuss the different aspects of mobility and air quality, discover synergies and innovate solutions to reduce car-use and emissions, hence improving citizens health. Thus, actions aim at giving opportunities to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.

For now, let’s see a practical example. During the 2017 European Mobility Week in Valencia, the city experienced a positive impact on green mobility. A specific magazine was edited with news and pieces of information. Among the activities, there was the Mobility Fair in the city hall square in which everybody could check alternatives to the more pollutant car mobility. On the Tuesday, the Children city was an event in which children were shown the surrounding of their schools and they symbolically penalize unsupportive, antisocial actions regarding mobility. This way, children are taught to recognize the positive actions instead of the harmful ones. Next, a workshop was done in which neighbors valued the urban public space and detected changing opportunity in order to improve the neighborhoods mobility. Moreover, engineers organized a meeting to discuss issues which linked mobility to road safety. Furthermore, the new app for the public bus system was presented. Besides, a film series and concerts were played each with focus on mobility. Finally, the Bike day took place in which more than 10,000 rode together to claim for the green mobility.

The XV Iberian Congress: Activities

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As I recently talked about, the XV Iberian Congress about urban biking is one of the most important events which will take place in Valencia the next May. The city will vibrate with this international meeting and the organization guarantees 5 days of intense, high-instructive, deep-learning experience. If you want to register for the activities, you have to fill in the congress page (only in Spanish at the moment I write this post).

What about the activities? All the five days will be plenty of activities. On the 16^th May a riding on Valencia will happen and Morten Kabell, Copenhagenize General Manager, will open the congress with the speech Bicycle and city. From Thursday 17^th to Saturday 20^th May, an impressive amount of activities will take place in three different locations. Round tables, speeches, discussion boards and presentations will delight the attendees, and participants will shared ideas and connections. Mobilities and genre, politics, European funding regarding bike infrastructures, logistics, digital tools for sustainable mobility, how to evaluate the quality politics in the urban cycling design, social benefits, technical route in Valencia, the bike tourim development, bike and children, the Bike Equity net, mass media and bikes, the bike logistics evolution, health and mobility, intermodality, citizen sponsorship, working with bikes, air quality measuring, urban transformation and neighbor struggle, … are some themes which will be treated in these days. Routes and parties will also be enjoyed. The closing event will be carried out by Lake Sagaris.

IMPORTANT: Plan in advance after checking the congress program as most activities are determined in parallel. Thus, it is impossible to assist to all of it.

Moreover, the third Cyclist Women Meeting will be a reality on Saturday and Sunday. Women will enjoy several workshops from secure traffic to bike mechanics at all levels, and two ridings: BTT and road riding. All these events are exclusive for women, so men are forbidden here.

Finally, a riding in the vegetable garden, one of the treasures of Valencia, is planned on Sunday morning, whereas the Con bici (the supra Spanish association regarding urban biking) assembly will say good bye to these extremely, emotional, passionate, full of bikeholics and fun days, period.

Flowerpots to increase quality of life

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The use of flowerpots is a clear example of what is called “a soft pedestrianization”. Soft because its impact is low, does not require complex constructions and the cost is minimum. Moreover, it allows bikes to cross between them always having in mind that pedestrians should be respected in these pedestrian areas. By respecting them I mean biking at low speed and letting them be. Otherwise the cohabitation is difficult. Moreover, think about the pyramid I proposed some time ago.

We have seen its use in several cities like in the photos bellow.

The XV Iberian Congress

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Every year the Iberian Congress takes place in a different city. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Lisbon, Malaga, Vila-Nova de Gaia and Zaragoza organized it from 2012, and this years it is the turn to Valencia from the 16^th to 20^th May. This international congress encompasses projects and initiatives related to urban bicycle. The official slogan for this edition is Everybody counts towards the friendly city. The congress aims at supporting the cultural transformation towards the paradigm change which see the city in a new, healthy and sustainable way. It has four “friendly axis” as thematic blocks:

The city within everybody grasp: It considers bikes from a day-to-day perspective and several themes are treated such as:
- Bicycle and genre
- Disable people mobility
- Children autonomy and bikes
- Riding to work, school, university, market center, etc.
- Bicycles and intergenerational and intercultural relationships
Bike is cooler: It focuses on the subjects:
- Bicycle and health
- Bike-economy
- Social benefits and bicycle
- Environmental benefits
Bicycle challenges: With the specific purposes of:
- Education to improve bicycle use
- Communication, promotion and biking
- Laws and bicycle
- Other bike modality (road cycling and mountain biking)
- Intermodality (bike plus public transport)
Shared cities: With special attention to:
- Urban planning and participation into the public area
- Politics to the City for everybody
- Politics to the bike use improvement

Two more events will take place in parallel to the Iberian Congress: The III Cyclist Women Meeting and the II Bicifest. The Cyclist Women Meeting will take place on 19^th and 20^th May. Its main purpose is to visibilise their needs, rights and spaces in society as it has coincided with the bicycle evolution through history, as well as reducing the gender gap.

On the other hand, the Bicifest (a local bicycle big event from 18^th to 20^th May) will consist in a lot of activities opened to the general public in order to bring the world of cycling to each of the city corners and its metropolitan, ciclable area.

You will have more information in the coming future.

A different bike line

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Burgos is a Spanish northern city in which at least one bike line goes on the road. This time it has not any physical separation with other vehicles. The fact of being designed next to the bus line, on its right, protects it against a lack of civic car drivers behavior which can cause bike accidents. In addition, bikers cycle more secure as bus run frequency is considerable lower than cars one. Moreover, the bike line follows the same route as the bus does. This is important as this way the optimum path is guaranteed avoiding unnecessary turns.

Visca el carrer (Long live street in Valencian)

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I went to an interesting exhibition about cities development in Valencia, Spain, last January. The first part dealt with the conflicts between personal interests among the different actors in the cities regarding mobility, and why dialogue is essential to overcome them. Common claims such as I want to walk on the streets without fear, Children need to play on streets, What about disabled people, I want to sleep at nights (referring to those people living at nightlife areas), etc. were treated.

In the second part specific changes in several cities to improve sustainability and prioritize the more human ways of transport from the bicycle to the public transport, and among all making cities for people were shown. From this, I discover urb-i on which you can find at least 3,300 real examples of this kind of actions. Then, the memory of Jane Jacobs was highlighted as a clear pioneer in the study of cities from the anthropological point of view. Derived from this, I watched an extremely interesting documentary which can be free accessed at www.lifebetweenbuildingsfilm.org. I strongly recommend it.

Finally, a series of pictures and short texts explained the evolution of Valencia in the last century. To sum it up, at the beginning of the 19^th century most of the city surface was used mainly by pedestrians. Moreover, there were some chariots to carry goods. In the 30’s, cars appeared as a distinction symbol, but in the 60’s and as more people had one, the concept of car = status symbol disappeared. As time went by, the car lobby invested (and still does) huge figures in marketing and most of citizens entrapped in the circle. The end of the time series was dedicated to the present actions to improve sustainable mobility and how perhaps the future will be. I am sure the history of urban mobility is similar to the Valencian.

The Bicycle World Forum moves to Lima

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The seventh edition of the Bicycle World Forum is going to take place at Lima (Peru) from 22^nd to 26^th of February this year. This key event for urban cyclist is the highest in the world and citizens, associations, international nets of bike-activisms, researchers, politicians and managers are welcomed. Indeed, it is the ideal place for everybody interested in cities, urban planning, public space use and bikes as part of the sustainable mobility.

The Bicycle World Forum fosters reflection and thoughts about mobility, citizenship, planning, access for everybody, public space and sustainability with the goal to positively impact the destiny of our cities.

The event will count with several activities:

Workshops
Speeches
Short presentations
Hackathon, yes a meeting for programmers
Games: Bike Polo, Flat Land, Bike Trial and Pum Track
Movies, books, magazines, etc. related to bikes presentations

For more info, check www.fmb7.org

Bicycles and women

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The bicycle birth had an impact on both women and men. Both genres benefited from it, but women did it more intensively. The American magazine Munsey wrote this in 1896:

“To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of devices they new in their work and in their play. To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new world.”

Such was the consciousness awakening of women’s empowerment. This new vehicle allowed them to acquire independence and did not need men for some trips. Some have argued that this invention constituted the most important technology which has been helping women through centuries. Indeed, Susan B. Anthony said in 1896:

“ Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

I talked about the history of the bicycle with the draisine at the beginning, but it did not reach real popularity until the invention of the chain and the use of rubber in the second half of the 19th century. The life for women at that time was tremendously unfair. They spent their time inside home, tea houses or social parties. The bike democratization was a ray of sunlight. Not surprisingly Frances Williard (president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, an important American suffragist organizations in the 19th century) experienced a freedom feeling which made her a reference activist while riding a bike at the age of 53. Even more, she dedicated a whole book to the bicycle.

Probably the clearer change the bike caused was the use of trousers since women had been using skirt and other garment. Thus, baggy pants popularized to make pedaling easier and more comfortable. Both men and women criticized the new behaviors without realizing the changes were going to be permanent.

The Copenhagenize index

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Every two years the equip Copenhagenize Design Co. makes a raking with the top 20 bicycle friendly cities. Each city is given a score according to 14 parameters which try to collect the most important issues regarding bikes and cities in an unbiased way. This index has a lot of prestige. The parameters are:

Advocacy
Bicycle culture
Bicycle facilities
Bicycle infrastructure
Bike share programme
Gender split
Modal share for bicycles
Modal share increase since 2006
Perception of safety
Politics
Social acceptance
Urban planning
Traffic calming
Cargo bikes and logistics

The fact of using these parameters rather than asking individuals allows avoiding personal perceptions which prevents excessive positive or negative emotions. If that would happen, it would discredit the index in turns.

Although most of the cities in the ranking are European ones, the authors also consider cities from all the continents. In the 2017 edition, 136 cities in total were examine.

Bikes and wars

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A bicycle is much more than a machine for transportation. It has been used in a variety of ways since it was invented. The ancient prototypes were used mainly for sports and bourgeoisie entertainment, but bike history is much more than this. Today I am going to write about bikes and wars.

Bicycles were initially used back in the Franco-Prussian War (1870 – 71) when the French troops were the first to use them on the war field. Imagine how uncomfortable was ride high-wheel bikes on dirt roads and mud paths. Some 30 years after, the British experienced with the bicycles during the Anglo-Boer War (1899 – 1902) in South Africa. Contenders looked for mobility.

During the First World War, the Belgian, German, Italian, British and French armies used bikes with unequal success. The Italians were who most employed them. Their elite light infantry Bersaglieri regiments made used of them in order to improve mobile tactics and flashy incursions. In addition, scouts and messengers were among the top bicycle users. Soldiers could attach rifles down the tube or swung across their back. The British bikes were manufactured by Birmingham Small Arms Company which was a major British arms and ammunition producer since the Crimean War (1854 – 1856). Millions died in the Great War and among the casualties were 15 cyclists who rode in the Tour de France in 1914.

Bicycles were used again in the Second World War. British and American paratroopers realised bikes offer advantages for reconnaissance. On the other side, Japanese dealt with rubber shortages and rode the rims without tyres on rough jungle rails.

The bicycle simpleness made transportation quick and reliable. Even in 2008 the Australian Military used it in East Timor to improve flexibility of field patrols. The unit was the Bicycle Infantry Mounted Patrol.