Shitty politicians

From the last local elections in Spain, right-wing politicians have decided to ban bike lines in several cities with the help of fascists. These actions go against European and Spanish laws as well as common sense. One of the key points in fighting against climate change is changing the XX century mobility based almost exclusively on polluting cars into low carbon footprint vehicles like bicycles in order to protect human health and environment. It attracts attention that while bikes are promoted in a lot of countries around the world, no matter what political party governs including right-wing parties for example in The Netherlands and Denmark, in Spain right -wing parties see bicycles as a threat for car. Both the Partido Popular and VOX in Spain share the same origin: The genocide dictatorship, and several corruption cases. Surprisingly, in European countries where the equivalent Partido Popular rules, bike infrastructures are increased.

Why is that the Spanish right-wing parties behave differently considering bicycles as unpolitical vehicles? Clearly it is because they feel that they live in the XX century, they like cars (some corruption cases in which these political parties were involved were related to cars and its infrastructures) and love climate change. Additional facts confirm the last point such as the apathy in protecting the Doñana national park , the disaster in the Mar Menor or the disastrous management and environmental impact of the Prestige ship. Guess what, in all cases the politicians involved in these examples have been members of the Partido Popular.

Todobici

Workshops fix your bicycle indoor and some of them do it outdoor. Going a step further, few workshops not only fix bikes indoor and outdoor, but also do it free on streets, parks and pedestrian zones in order to help no-bikeholism. These workshops think people as customers as well as key persons to improve Earth as it comes to environment, better health and happier.

One of the workshops is called Todobici which is located in Valencia, Spain. It has promoted biking for more than a decade in which, in addition to fix and sell bikes and components, has contributed to develop the neighbor and the bike activism. Todobici shows adapted workshops outdoor as master classes with the name of “Con las manos en la grasa” (something like Fill your hands with grease, in English). They say that it is important that those who pedal bikes know their vehicles and names of parts and basic repairs. It has done workshops for children in schools, senior citizens in several locations, women in Todobici and online in the 2021 Ciclosferia. Moreover, it is a workshop in which you can find Ciclosfera.

The Turia course

The Turia river crossed the city of Valencia, Spain, for ages. It provided water and fish resources to citizens long time ago and is cited in books and texts. The problem is that it overflowed every autumn in a meteorological event called cold drop in which floods were produced year after year. Thus, Valencian authorities decided to deviate it upstream so that such floods were not repeated. At this point, they thought what to do with the more than nine kilometers long of new, profitable area that is called the Turia course.

At the beginning, some idiot politicians proposed to convert it in a highway with twelve car lines. “A fast way to go through Valencia”, they argued. Immediately after, lots of citizens and associations presented an innovative idea in the Valencia of the 80’s. They fought to convert the Turia course in a massive garden which could be enjoyed by locals and foreigners. You can see the huge difference between one and the other proposals in the picture bellow. People pressed so much with demonstrations, opinion pieces in newspapers, banners in streets and so on that politicians saw their desire and how important it was. At this point, some politicians contemplated the second proposal as the most interesting and protective to the inhabitants health. In the end, it was the chosen one and we enjoy the Turia course as one of the green lungs of Valencia. By the way, you can cycle it thanks to two bike lines which start at the Cabecera lake and end in the city Aquarium.