Gene was at Velo-City2011 in Sevilla, España

Sevilla's Meteoric Rise in Transportation Cycling

2006-2009

The City of Sevilla in España set a goal of catching up with other cities in España and Europe to attain a significant increase in self-powered transportation. With not too much of the transportation infrastructure oriented to cycling and about 6000 daily commutes done by bicicleta in 2006, Sevilla measured 66,000 in 2009! A truly meteoric rise.

But the city is not at all sitting on its laurels. This last week, it hosted Velo-City 2011, <http://tinyurl.com/VelloCity2011>, a global, annual conference on cycling, the benefits, how to promote it and a meeting of the minds of movers and shakers from many parts of the world. The Keynote speaker was Gro Harlem Brundtland who has been Prime Minister of Norway three times, chaired the UN committee on sustainability in 1987, and continues to serve humanity. A large number of elected officials from the U.S. were recruited to advise the City in infrastructure improvements for cycling.

Then, and now, the people and things of Sevilla are primarily moved by carbon fuels. I observed a decent number of buses, Priii and “Smart” cars, but during “rush” hour, traffic jams look just like the rest of the industrialized world, namely bogged down. There is a new and very beautiful light-rail system taking people through heavily traveled routes, and a subway system (which I didn't observe).

I rented a bike on two of the days I was there and got a feeling for what the city has done to encourage cycling. The good news is that there is a connected, dedicated path system that forms a pretty good grid of the city. The bad news is that these (usually striped bi-directional) paths are very narrow and are often immediately adjacent to pedestrians and motor vehicles. Separation from pedestrians is strictly by paint and from motor vehicles, by pipe railings and permanent pylons that are less than 2 feet high. Thus, normal usage levels (rush hours) results in no or difficult passing and motor vehicles passing towards you just inches away. Intersections are trouble spots, but fortunately traffic lights are often positioned to protect pedestrians and cyclists. Since the layout of major intersections (often signaled circles) have pedestrian crossings (and now cycle crossings) located away from the circles and are controlled by signals, motorists have long been used to stopping for pedestrians, cyclists too are respected.

Unfortunately, I only saw three or four “serious” cyclists, that is, those with a helmet, decent clothing and a properly adjusted bike. Clearly LAB training is needed.

It is a bit amazing that there are throughways is a town as old as Sevilla which was originally laid out for someone on a horse. I am surmising the advent of the motor vehicle resulted in demolition of existing buildings to attain the existing throughways. [Our taxi from the train station could only bring us three “blocks” from our hotel].

In a way I'd like to have Sevilla's problem of nearly fully used cycling facilities. I would not like to try to carve out a little more of the zero-sum space available to all forms of transportation. In the U. S. there is not enough respect from motorists for pedestrians and cyclists to have safe Bike Paths adjacent to motor vehicle roadways, specifically at intersections of cross streets. At the very least, Sevilla should double the bike paths it currently has, not to new areas, but to the other side of the street where they currently exist. That would provide wide enough paths for safe passing and continue to have all cyclists ride in the same direction as adjacent motor vehicles.

This leads me to the real difficulty I have with the approaches I've seen wherever I have been. That is, city engineers almost require two levels of cycling skills and confidence. The paths of Sevilla and East Jefferson in Phoenix are for a more casual rider. Confident, skilled drivers of bicycles will choose to merge in with traffic, safer as borne out by crash and injury data. I also know walking comes before running in everyone's life.

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Some pix from the event:

Keynote Speaker Ms. Bruntland

MC Gil Peñalosa

Attendees


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Some of Sevilla's cycling infrastructure:

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Yours Truely