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Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together
- secretsatan 5y agoSimilar, in Switzerland they have a "Pedibus", mostly for small kids, but they walk a route accompanied by a few adults, picking up kids on the way till you get these long lines of kids walking to school> Link (In french) https://pedibus.ch/fr/ https://pedibus.ch/fr/
- _nalply 5y agoI have been in Paris two weeks ago and I am surprised how much Paris changed in the last years. Bike lanes and people who ride bikes and scooters everywhere. I hope that this is THE change in most European metropolises for the future. Not only in Barcelona.
- peoplefromibiza 5y agoBeen in Paris two weeks ago as well to visit my girlfriend who's been living there for 11 years. Scooters are in the process of being banned in Paris because they are too dangerous and in Rome, where I come from, they are going yo be heavily regulated (mandatory helmet, reduced speed, designated pick up and drop locations, etc. ) because they caused a +35% increase of brain traumas to teenagers Not everything that looks cool on first sight it's an actual improvement.
- Scoundreller 5y agoI wonder if they’ll actually enforce the scooter ban on private ones. Because they certainly don’t enforce traffic laws on motos lane splitting constantly anywhere.
- peoplefromibiza 5y agoSpeculating here because I am not aware of the details, but I guess they will be regulated the same way mopeds are: license plates, helmets and all that stuff.
- _nalply 5y agoHaha. I rented a car. This gave me the feeling that it is inofficially tolerated by the police. But driving on the bus lanes is very strictly verboten even for motos and using the bike lanes is frowned upon. I once saw a lorry unloading on a bike lane and a police car stopping by the driver and after some gesticulating the police seemed to admonish the driver like this: okay but get away from here ASAP!
- xwdv 5y agoIt would be a shame if they are banned as it is one of the most efficient and enjoyable ways to get around the city.
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoIn principle it's a great idea but from the picture it looks like they're monopolizing a shared resource. This isn't fundamentally different than adults parading around during Critical Mass.
- peoplefromibiza 5y agoIn my opinion they certainly bring the fun factor, but regarding efficency they offer no real advantage over electric mopeds, especially when riding them with a passenger. They are probably more "portable" though.
- jseban 5y agoElectric mopeds are amazing, best way of transporting yourself in a city when the weather allows. It has all the benefits, the only downside is that you can't really use it in rain or snow.
- bserge 5y ago*teenagers who fall. Really could've been reduced by a lot with a few simple instructions in the app. Stick to the right, don't speed, be careful, etc. Who the fuck falls off a scooter, anyway.
- brailsafe 5y agoHave never ridden one, but I assume you could easily crash into a person, car, curb, signpost, other scooterers, hit a rock etc.. Simple instructions don't solve anything, and represent a design flaw. If the design doesn't inherently address the problem you want to solve, then text definitely won't.
- bserge 5y agoWell, I'm saying that because people don't even realize they need to treat the road somewhat like a car driver. Like, literally, they install the app and get on the scooter and do 20km/h on the opposite side then are surprised that there's people and bikes coming right into them. A simple "stick to your right" would help a lot of them imo. And it's really hard to crash one ime, but then again I somehow never fell or crashed a bicycle for half my life.
- brailsafe 5y agoYa idk that sounds pretty bad tbh. It is arguably a result of poor road design as well, but some people will just do some bizarre stuff.
- peoplefromibiza 5y agoNot a judgment on my side on teenagers, this is from an Italian source translated through Google The numbers are quite bad https://www-inmoto-it.translate.goog/news/altre-notizie/cronaca/2021/10/01-4764275/monopattini_elettrici_a_roma_a_settembre_400_di_incidenti_gravi?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=nui https://www-inmoto-it.translate.goog/news/altre-notizie/cron...
- claytoneast 5y ago
- MomoXenosaga 5y agoI honestly can't wait for electric vehicles to become common. No more getting gas attacked when waiting at a traffic stop. Air pollution is a big deal in my country.
- _nalply 5y agoElectric vehicles are plugging up traffic exactly as bad as fossil fueled vehicles. Now I read a little more about Paris what changed. The mayor Ms Hidalgo introduced the concept of the 15 minute city [0]. It's more important that people can reach all important services within 15 minutes of walking than having Teslas standing in traffic everywhere. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/paris-mayor-unveils-15-minute-city-plan-in-re-election-campaign https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/paris-mayor-un...
- jmrm 5y agoIn most of European cities the use of electric scooters have skyrocketed, both private bought and as a service (like Lime). I don't know how is in France, but in Spain there are new regulation, and new ones halfway, to have a regulation where these vehicles are registered, users have to use helmet, and in a near future, even have civil liability/accident insurance to prevent some kind of problem. At first, there wasn't nay kind of problem, but more and more people keep buying this scooters, they were driving at high speed in the pavement, there was some accidents with scooters involved, and even there was a couple of pedestrian deaths due to misuse, so the government got serious about that.
- gadrev 5y agoYesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28970792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28970792 (this is a different article)
- agumonkey 5y agoThe bike brigade is loose :) I don't know how a bike-first city would feel, but biking is a serious bonus in one's life (granted you have safe space or a herd around you). So the more the merrier.
- unglaublich 5y agoVisit any city center in the Netherlands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayPDlDi9Ug4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayPDlDi9Ug4
- jseban 5y agoIt feels like having a gym membership, you really like the idea of yourself, and you can be smug and get virtue signalling points, but in practice people rarely use it and it's mostly empty except for a short season.
- agumonkey 5y agoyou mean people using their bikes don't do it regularly ?
- jseban 5y agoYep, that's what I mean. They like the idea of being a good person, but when push comes to shove, in reality it's only used/usable when the weather is nice, and people don't use it when the weather is bad.
- bserge 5y agoYou joking? I have used a tram twice in the past six months. I bike 25km to work and back every day and anywhere I need to go. And I love it even more without the scorching heat. I've not felt this good physically in a decade, great free aerobic exercise. And apparently this city isn't even all that bike friendly compared to others, which is amazing since it seems perfect to me.
- inglor_cz 5y agoIt is my experience that two things correlate positively with widespread adoption of biking: a. Relatively flat city terrain. (Not the case in Prague, for example; a lot of the residential areas are at much higher elevation than the city centre.) b. Moderate temperatures at both ends of the summer-winter scale. Most people won't bike to work at -20 or +35 Celsius.
- kohlerm 5y agoWith regards to b. That seems to be true only partially seehttps://www.euronews.com/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-loving-finnish-city-that-keeps-pedalling-even-in-the-snow https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-loving-fin...
- namdnay 5y agoI agree. Luckily (a) is slowly changing thanks to ebikes (you can even get child ebikes now!)
- mucholove 5y agoSomeone already linked to Oulu which proves that biking may be unaffected by freezing temps. On the other end of the spectrum, and unanserwed in the article here—Sevilla might be a great place to study the effect of heat. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/10/13/best-practices-how-seville-became-a-city-of-cyclists/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/10/13/best-practices-how-se...
- ikurei 5y agoUnaffected? I don't think so. Oulu proves that temperature is a surmountable obstacle. I think the parent comment was right in that biking is very difficult to sell when those circumstances aren't right, even though some cities might overcome anything with sufficient bike culture and good infrastructure.
- Kafkish 5y agoHow many places in the world would you get +35 Celsius (95 F) in the morning?
- Kafkish 5y ago> the ride from start to finish lasts about 25 minutes. That's about 50 minutes to and fro. That's all the exercise a child needs in a day. Wish they'll succeed in making it every day, instead of just on Fridays.
- lm28469 5y ago> That's all the exercise a child needs in a day. More like the minimum recommended amount, but it's a good start
- Kafkish 5y agoThat, actually, is way more than the minimum recommended. See [1]. It took me about 10 minutes of jogging at least 3-4 times a week over several months before I got to the point where I can now jog 60+ minutes non-stop. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/well/move/exercise-heart-health.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/well/move/exercise-heart-...
- amelius 5y agoAlso, I suppose the majority of children still live within a much smaller radius of school.
- monopoledance 5y agoBiking is horribly efficient, I think. I used to overstate my commuting, as well, but when I compare it to running, you need to at least double the duration for equivalency. Both in numbers and feelz. And you really need to push it (lol) to get your heart working. Not a complete replacement for exercise, otherwise. Luckily, I start hunting on a bike naturally, but lots of people seem to not even break a sweat, or really enjoy sitting on their saddle. Exhaust pollution wise, bike commuting seems to be still beneficial, but it’s definitely putting a counterweight in the bowl, too. Tho, that’s supposed to get better, with fewer (my city started converting whole car lanes into bike lanes <3 ) and electric cars. Anyway, those children grow up riding bikes will likely continue as adults where getting any exercise is better than nothing. And if you’re used to taking your bike everywhere, you may easily make 20-50km/d, which is something. Biking can be more than a mode of transportation. I often get overwhelmingly happy flowing through the city with a breeze on my skin and people in the same room. I wish that bliss onto everyone.
- gnabgib 5y ago2 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28956256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28956256 (3pts, no discussion).. despite 3 posts, this article hasn't got much traction.
- daneel_w 5y agoBy choice I use a bicycle exclusively for all my transport needs (with the obvious exceptions like furniture etc.), and I'd like to see more people get up on a bike regularly to help promote the people's collective health, but I can see a problem with how this particular practice is executed. How high is the risk that these children might grow into the reckless assumption that the entire road (especially the middle of the road) is theirs for the taking as soon as they get up on their bikes?
- soared 5y agoSeemingly low I’d think. On the bike bus they’ve got hundreds of kids and parents around them and a police escort, so it’s not a normal biking situation. Plus parents likely are teaching kids bike safety. Biking in this bus formation and biking normally are separate enough that it doesn’t seem to be a concern. IMO that’s like asking if kids don’t where seat belts on a normal bus, are they then at risk of not wearing seat belts in normal cars?
- daneel_w 5y ago"Biking in this bus formation and biking normally are separate enough that it doesn’t seem to be a concern. IMO that’s like asking if kids don’t where seat belts on a normal bus, are they then at risk of not wearing seat belts in normal cars?" I don't think you put much thought into your reasoning. You're conveniently forgetting that people have a knack for developing bad habits, and children have a knack for picking up everything their parents do and cementing it.
- enriquto 5y agoBut cycling in the middle of your lane is a good habit. It is explicitly recommended! The bicibus may thus help people to do it and reclaim the road.
- daneel_w 5y agoI'm all for reclaiming and equally sharing the roads that all of us paid for, but it can't be done by biking recklessly in the middle of car traffic. It has to achieved politically.
- henvic 5y agoThis happening organically is way better than any state-sponsored policy down the throats of everyone (which includes policies that end up making most traffic to become by cars instead of smaller vehicles or public transit, of course).
- agumonkey 5y agoorganic is great, now we need more of that for all aspects of life, and hopefully some simple large integration of efforts to keep them stable and efficient (after all we have near free computing to communicate, analyse and organize, so why not)
- doctorhandshake 5y agoYet another example of how Barcelona feels societally futuristic in some ways. For a couple more - they were way ahead of the curve (at least from an American perceptive) on superblocks[1] and they have centralized vacuum municipal trash collection[2] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/superblocks-rescue-barcelona-spain-plan-give-streets-back-residents https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/superblocks-r... [2] https://enviropaul.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/all-the-garbage-of-barcelona/ https://enviropaul.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/all-the-garbage-...
- ResearchCode 5y agoIt feels more dystopian than futuristic. There are countries where children don't have to commute in large groups to avoid crime.
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- VBprogrammer 5y agoI think the safety is to do with road traffic rather than deliberate criminality.
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- mejutoco 5y agoBarcelona is not a place where children have to commute in large groups to avoid crime. I do not know where you got that idea.
- ResearchCode 5y agoGot the idea from them being one of the crime capitals of Europe where visitors are asked to practice war zone vigilance. Could also be a little bit of the middle class being priced out of driving cars. Futurism in the Davos sense perhaps. You will own nothing...
- thriftwy 5y agoWhy is their school so far that they have to bike? Ideally you should just walk.
- darkwater 5y agoYou just uncovered one of the issues in Barcelona: getting a public school place near where you are living, especially in the Eixample district (the one where this initiative is being done) which is super crowded and with very few real estate available for public buildings.
- thriftwy 5y agoI wonder how they managed to forget schools when building this district from scratch in the XX century.
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- stabbles 5y agoMakes me think of the Critical Mass movement [1], except that this has more impact because they are kids and is actually serving a purpose of going to school. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass_(cycling) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass_(cycling)
- pharmakom 5y agoThis is wonderful to see. It’s sad how such an old technology, that can fix so many urban problems, is overlooked in most of the developed world. - Childhood obesity (around 30% in some areas of developed nations) - Independence for children (meet friends, get to school, etc.) - Time poor “taxi service” parents might save 1hr+ / day - Congestion (bikes can be even more space efficient than buses) - Air quality (many developed cities exceed WHO guidelines - Money saved on car payments for the poorest in society. This is a huge burden. - Independence for those too old, with a disability or medical condition that prevents driving. Did you know many epileptics are not legally allowed to drive? - City saves money on road repair etc. Road damage is a power of vehicle weight. - Local shops favoured over out of town, big box etc.
- meerita 5y agoI live in Barcelona. We have most of the streets with a proper bicycle lane. Too many people using the lines everyday and I believe the best system is Madrid, when you can go directly on the street on one of the lanes, instead of a small lane.
- namenotrequired 5y agoMy brother has been living in Barcelona for one year and visiting yearly for over a decade. He tells me he can feel the city change and become more and more of a bike city. As a dutchie this makes him very happy