The city has benchmarked with the Velo.Info method and was awarded a Silver status for cycling policy.

Barcelona's urban configuration

Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia -hosting the Regional Government and the Parliament, is a cosmopolitan Mediterranean city that incorporates in its urban street pattern Roman remains (+2000 years of history), medieval districts and the most beautiful examples of Modernism and 20th century. The city is located at the North-East corner of Spain, 150Km down the Pyrenees. Its situation promotes a natural main connection to Europe, both in social and commercial aspects, and its harbour is one of the most important outlets in the Mediterranean. Barcelona is divided into 10 districts with their own political competences.

Its particular situation between the sea and the coastal mountains limits the evolution of the city and gives an irregular orographic profile (12,5 m of altitude in the old village, with a progressive slope as climbing towards the 300m Collserola hills). Climate is warm, typical Mediterranean, with an average temperature of 17,5?C (11?/24? for Winter/Summer).

With a population of 1.612.237 inhabitants (2005), 4.667.136 for the metropolitan area, and an extension of 100,4 Km2 (a density of 15,72 inh/km2), it is the main city in Catalonia and the second in Spain (after Madrid). It holds 86.744 buildings (all types) which represents 7,5% of the Catalan region.

The distribution of the city surface (approx.) is shared among 40% buildings, 30% parks (and other 'green' spaces) and 20% streets and squares. That represents that there are 12m2 of road for each car and 4m2 of sidewalk per pedestrian.

A common characteristic of the Mediterranean sites is a model of mixed and diverse city, with proximity or easy access to everything and no need of long travelling to find most goods or services.

Mobility system and policies

Barcelona is today a dense city, and at the same time a city with an area of influence which generates movement flows beyond the limits of the municipality itself. The increasingly intense commuting processes back and forth from home or work located in other townships in the metropolitan area, together with the shifting to commerce and service of the productive activity and Barcelona's growing capacity as a cultural, leisure and tourist hub, has led to a steady rise in the number of journeys made.

Transport supply and demand

The road mobility system in Barcelona (1.275 Km) is divided in two main structures/categories: the Basic Network (351 km, including only 27% of the city streets but absorving 81% of the transit) and the Local Network (925 km, for 73% of the streets and 19% of the total transit). This essential Basic Network includes Ring Roads, Access Roads and Main Streets (sub-divided in 1st, 2nd and 3rd level categories). All those streets and roads included in the Basic Network are considered fundamental for the traffic management of the city (road use, traffic control technologies, signing, security and safety, enforcement, etc.).

Part of the successfully increasing use of public transport in the city (Barcelona has high PT mode share and PT ratings in European benchmarking such as UITP, EMTA, SESAME) is due, not only to the extension of the city network, but to the variety of modes of transport offered and the recently implemented integrated fare that, with a system of multi-use tickets, allows the citizens to travel through almost all the extension of the Metropolitan Region (up to 30 km outside the city) by combinations of the public transport services.

Barcelona's public transport system offers different types of road and rail transport: 8 metro lines (112km with 134 stations), 7 regional rail lines (630km with 182 stations), 103 bus lines (880km and 2433 stops) and 5 tram lines (28km and 42 stops).

The combined use of public transport represents 890 million journeys per year (2005) with o global increment of 2,8%.

Table 1: Public Transport supply: Barcelona Metropolitan Region (source: EMTA, 2004)

Total number of journeys in Barcelona reached 7.623.000 in 2005. Almost 62% are journeys inside the city and 38% are for connection. In the first case, journeys on foot are the most important with relevant superiority. This is a point of coherence with the public space (surface) dedicated to vehicles (11 km2) and that dedicated to pedestrians (12,2 km2).

This figure presents the modal shares for the City of Barcelona, distinguishing between journeys with both trip-ends in the City, and those with only one trip-end in the City. The next table presents the mode shares and trip rates for the city and the Metropolitan region. In this table, the mode share of cycling in the City is seen to be slightly higher than the Region, but the major part of non-motorised mobility is made on-foot.

Mobility Goals

The principle of sustainability is the foundation of Municipal policy. The goal is to ensure sustainable mobility both now and in the future, that is, mobility that is more environment and people-friendly, that is better planned, more efficient and more energy-conscious. The overall development of the Mobility Pact, as well as advances in the different task forces, are discussed and updated at least once a year. The setting for this is the Barcelona Traffic Council. Basic goals are divided in 10 points, briefly exposed in the next summary:

• Achieve high-quality, integrated public transport.
• Maintain traffic speeds and improve the speed of surface public transport.
• Increase the surface and quality of the public areas destined to pedestrian use.
• Increase the number of parking spaces and improve their quality.
• Improve citizens' information and improve road signals and signs.
• Achieve a set of legal regulations suited to the mobility of the city of Barcelona.
• Improve road safety and respect among users of the different modes of transport.
• Promote the use of less polluting fuels, and control air and noise pollution caused by traffic.
• Promote the use of bicycles as a regular means of transport.
• Achieve an agile, orderly distribution of goods and products throughout the city.

Cycling State of the art

Most of the cycling paths, bike-lanes, etc., are included/ incorporated within the road network structure (see Section2) and they must coexist with it and be managed within this general framework, although considering their specific characteristics.

As Figure 3 shows, the development of cycle lanes was very modest at the start of the 1990s (less than 10km), and increased significantly to over 100km by the end of the decade. Within the cycle lanes network, there are different configurations of lanes (on pavements, lanes on roads segregated from other circulating vehicles, on lanes as part of the traffic circulation, segregated cycle paths - including the Green Circular Route, a huge circuit around the city that includes riverside paths, etc.). Actually, total length of bicycle lanes is up to 127 km. (Dec 2005) with an increment of 2,5% in the last year.

Most of the lanes are placed in 2nd and 3rd level streets (avoiding, when possible, Access and Primary roads) and the most important challenge at the moment, and for the future, is connectivity among existing ones in order to offer continuous paths that provide good and stable communication for the most common routes through the city.

The total number of bikes in the city is estimated in 300.000 (with +600.000 cars and +240.000 motor. two-wheels) with an average daily use of 35.000.

During the last three years (2002-05) the increase in bicycle journeys has continued. It is the mode of transport showing a fastest growth in number of users with a maintained 5% increment, although it only represents 0,6% of the total (City modal split).

Most of the trips by bike are commuting journeys, going to work or school, see the next figure. Cycling journeys represent a small percentage compared with other transport modes, and this is one of the reasons to promote and encourage cycling.

The City Council co-ordinates the demand and supply of bike parking sites to organisations, as well as in those strategic points (schools, universities, public transport stations, bike lanes, etc).

Parking sites in public spaces: at the end of 2005, some 4.500 bike parking places were available on-street in Barcelona. A further 1,200 spaces are planned to be installed during 2006.
Underground parking sites: Some garages have watched parking places for bikes (BSM, 820 places; SABA, 240 places; besides private enterprises), data for end of 2005

If we compare it with the total number of bikes, it is clear that this is something to improve (and it has been an old complaint from Cycling Associations). The Municipality plans to increase the total number of spaces (for both on-street and underground types) with particular emphasis on locations linked to intermodal trips (public transport).

Road safety is a most important concern of the Municipality. With an average of 13000 injured people per year (293 cyclists) in the last ten years; it is a priority of the mobility action plans to reduce the number and severity of accidents. In 2005, the number of road accidents involving bicycle users was 394. The next table gives a brief view of the most recent trends (2004-05):

A condensed summary of the main cycling indicators for Barcelona is shown in the next figure.