Bike lanes: How cities across the world are responding to the pandemic
The health crisis is having an unexpected effect in some urban centers: motorists are losing space while cyclists are gaining it. EL PAÍS has examined how Spanish cities, as well as some in Europe and the Americas, are adapting their cycleways to the new mobility reality
This is the map of bicycle lanes in Paris before the pandemic. In 2014, Mayor Anne Hidalgo launched a plan to create a network of cycling lanes, and around 700 kilometers have already been built.
As a result of the health crisis, Paris has built a further 50 kilometers of temporary bike lanes by taking space away from motor vehicles. These lanes are wide, protected and they connect stretches of the existing network.
This is the map of cycling lanes in Madrid. The city has a network of 130 kilometers (with a further 130km in the outskirts). Another 12 kilometers of provisional lanes have been created, although these are not connected and they do not take space away from cars.
A comparison shows that Paris has a large network of bicycle lanes to move around the entire city, while Madrid lacks one in the city center; instead, most lanes are located on the periphery.
Barcelona is the Spanish city that has added the most kilometers of lanes during the pandemic: 21 temporary kilometers (which will become permanent), and a further eight planned kilometers. These lanes run through the city center, taking space away from motor vehicles.
Zaragoza, which has a good network, has not built more lanes. Instead, there are avenues with speed limits of 30 km/h for both cars and bikes. “That doesn’t encourage bicycle use,” says the association Pedalea.
Vitoria has created eight kilometers of cycling lanes leading to industrial parks to connect strategic hubs. They are old car lanes that have been converted using paint and bollards.
The coronavirus pandemic is having an unexpected effect on mobility: many cities are taking space away from motor vehicles and giving it to bicycles, a mode of transportation that reduces pollution and encourages a way of getting around that is healthy and safe against the virus.
Urban centers that were already working on this idea in recent years have made the most of the current situation to accelerate their self-transformation by creating temporary cycling lanes, made at no great cost using traffic cones and paint.
This is the case in Paris, a city whose transformation is being noted across Europe. It is also the case in Bogotá: the capital of Colombia has doubled the percentage of cyclists in the city by adding 80 kilometers of bike lanes.
Other cities, however, have made insufficient or purely cosmetic changes. “Any cycling infrastructure is a good solution to make people move in a sustainable way on bikes. If you make cycling lanes, people will use them. It took a pandemic for many cities to start thinking about bicycles,” says Mikael Colville-Andersen, an expert in sustainable city planning.
“Temporary bike lanes depend largely on a city’s pre-existing political will to adopt efficient measures to increase the number of people on bikes. For those that had clear plans, this situation has served as an acceleration,” says David Lois, a researcher at the Madrid Polytechnic University’s Center for Transportation Research.
But not all cycle lane extensions are the same. In Paris, the new cycleways are wide and take space away from motorists. This is the opposite of Madrid, where cars often double park on the bike lanes.
Barcelona has done some positive work, such as the cycleway it created on General Roger de Llúria Street, while other lanes that are shared with buses can feel less safe, such as the one on the Sants Creu Coberta road.
Examples of cycling lanes created
during the pandemic in some cities
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Vitoria
Examples of cycling lanes created
during the pandemic in some cities
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Vitoria
Examples of cycling lanes created during the pandemic in some cities
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Vitoria
Examples of cycling lanes created during the pandemic in some cities
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Vitoria
The Basque city of Vitoria has created on-road lanes marked with lines and separated from motorists by bollards. An example of this is the cycleway on Avenida de los Huetos. “It’s not enough to just lay down the lanes in order for them to work, but it’s a first step, and if it hadn’t been for the Covid situation, they would surely have been very difficult to execute, people would have said, ‘How can you take a lane away from the cars?’” says Juan Carlos Escudero, head of the city’s Information and Innovation for Sustainability department.
A global change
Some European cities such as Amsterdam, Oslo and Copenhagen have been encouraging bike use for years. But the pandemic, as well as growing citizen concern for public health and the environment, are pushing more capitals to follow in their wake.
During the coronavirus deescalation process, Berlin created 27 kilometers of pop-up lanes (which the far right has challenged in court), while London built more than 30 kilometers of permanent lanes, and the mayor is promising to multiply the city’s cycling infrastructure tenfold by 2025.
Brussels, which already had a network of 130 kilometers, has added 40 provisional ones, increasing the number of riders by 40%. And Lisbon, which had 105 kilometers in May, wants to double that figure by early 2021.
Berlin
(Germany)
London
(United Kingdom)
10 km
Paris
(France)
Brussels
(Belgium)
10 km
Oslo
(Norway)
Lisbon
(Portugal)
10 km
Bogota
(Colombia)
Mexico City
(Mexico)
10 km
Berlin (Germany)
London (United Kingdom)
10 km
Brussels (Belgium)
Paris (France)
10 km
Oslo (Norway)
Lisbon (Portugal)
10 km
Bogota (Colombia)
Mexico City (Mexico)
10 km
Berlin (Germany)
London (United Kingdom)
10 km
Oslo (Norway)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Brussels (Belgium)
10 km
10 km
Lisbon
Portugal)
Paris
(France)
Bogota
(Colombia)
Amsterdam
(The Netherlands)
10 km
10 km
Berlin (Germany)
London (United Kingdom)
10 km
Brussels (Belgium)
Oslo (Norway)
Mexico City (Mexico)
10 km
10 km
Lisbon (Portugal)
Paris (France)
Bogota (Colombia)
Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
10 km
10 km
“Temporary cycling lanes work like large avenues, showing continuity and coherence. This allows people who are new to this to plan a route and reduce the perception of risk, which quickly increases the number of cyclists,” explains Lois. “The most successful cities in the world, such as Paris and Bogotá, measure the number of cyclists before and after, and that data later helps make the measures permanent.”
The capital of Colombia has been one of the world’s most ambitious cities on this subject: to its pre-existing network of 550 kilometers of bike lanes, it has added 80 more during the pandemic. Although the city is still recording fewer two-wheel daily journeys than last year (580,000 versus 880,000), the importance of bicycles has doubled: in 2019 around 6.6% of trips were made on bicycles, compared with 13% now.
Meanwhile, Paris has seen its cycling population grow 65% this year. “Many cities were already experiencing a bicycle boom, but the pandemic has taken it further,” says the Canadian city planner and urbanist Brent Toderian. “Cities that were planning infrastructure for the coming years are carrying it out now in just a few months.” Mexico City is a case in point: it has created a cycleway over 12 kilometers long on Avenida de Insurgentes, a major artery crossing the huge city.
Cycleways in Spanish cities
EL PAÍS analyzed the cycleways in the 10 most-populated cities of Spain and three midsize ones (Valladolid, Vitoria and San Sebastián). A quick glance shows that some, such as Vitoria, Valencia, Zaragoza, San Sebastián and Seville, have a significant and safe network in place, while others – Madrid, Málaga, Bilbao and Las Palmas – have much more reduced infrastructure. The rest of the cities are somewhere in between. Murcia has more bike lanes per inhabitant than Barcelona, but the latter’s network is of higher quality and is more useful.
Network of cycling lanes in each city,
in kilometers per 100,000 inhabitants
Vitoria
49.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
San Sebastián
37.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valladolid
36.2 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Palma
(Mallorca)
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Seville
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valencia
20.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Zaragoza
20.0 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Murcia
19.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Barcelona
14.1 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Madrid
8.3 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Bilbao
9.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria
6.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Málaga
7.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Network of cycling lanes in each city,
in kilometers per 100,000 inhabitants
Vitoria
49.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
San Sebastián
37.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valladolid
36.2 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Palma
(Mallorca)
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Seville
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valencia
20.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Zaragoza
20.0 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Murcia
19.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Barcelona
14.1 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Bilbao
9.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Madrid
8.3 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria
6.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Málaga
7.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Network of cycling lanes in each city, in kilometers per 100,000 inhabitants
Vitoria
49.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
San Sebastián
37.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valladolid
36.2 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Palma (Mallorca)
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Valencia
20.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Seville
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Zaragoza
20.0 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Bilbao
9.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Murcia
19.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Barcelona
14.1 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria
6.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Málaga
7.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Madrid
8.3 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Network of cycling lanes in each city, in kilometers per 100,000 inhabitants
Vitoria
49.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
San Sebastián
37.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valladolid
36.2 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Palma (Mallorca)
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Seville
27.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Valencia
20.4 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Zaragoza
20.0 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Bilbao
9.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Murcia
19.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Barcelona
14.1 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria
6.6 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Madrid
8.3 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
Málaga
7.8 km.
/100,000 inhabitants
5 km
The quality of the systems varies widely, and ranges from wide, well-connected lanes to narrow paths where riders and pedestrians are often pitted against each other. In some cases there are just markings on the road that do not segregate the cyclists from the motorists, making them unsafe. And many cities even consider shared lanes with speed limits of 30km/h to be cycleways. But the speed limit is often not observed, and these “ciclocarriles” are not much of an incentive for cyclists.
Municipal maps include all these categories and typically do not differentiate between them, making it difficult to draw comparisons with other cities. Evaluating a cycleway network requires more than just measuring its total length; it is also important to see how useful it is. Half of Madrid’s 260-kilometer network is located on the outskirts or inside parks, and is mostly meant to offer a form of weekend leisure. But Barcelona’s 230 kilometers and Valencia’s 160 run mostly through the city center.
This leads more people to use bicycles. In Barcelona, which has a population of 1.6 million, there are 200,000 bike trips made every day, representing 2.9% of all daily journeys and meaning that nearly three in every 100 people use the bike as their mode of transportation. City officials have estimated a post-pandemic rise of 12%.
In Valencia, with a population of 800,000, there are 85,000 bike trips a day, representing 4.8% of all commutes. In Madrid, with a population of 3.2 million, bike rides represent just 0.6% of all trips and the city does not have up-to-date information about bicycle use.
In fact, putting a number on cycling mobility has become a headache for local authorities in many municipalities, which either lack them entirely or fail to update them, making it difficult to assess whether their existing networks or pop-up lanes are being effective.
Some cities have been improving their cycleway infrastructure for years, and the pandemic has helped accelerate those plans. This is the case in Barcelona, which has added 21 new kilometers, two of which are shared with buses. Vitoria added eight kilometers, just like Valladolid, which has seen a 20% increase in cyclists. All three cities have announced that these provisional lanes will soon become permanent.
Other cities, such as Seville or Zaragoza, which already had significant infrastructure in place, did not seize the opportunity to expand them. Madrid did, but it used a poor design. Palma de Mallorca only added two additional kilometers, while Valencia, whose network has grown from 126 to 162 kilometers in five years, has not built any temporary infrastructure – instead, it has announced 15 new cycleways to be rolled out in the coming months.
Quality of the lanes
Until recently, this mode of transportation had been viewed as irrelevant by most Spanish cities, and that helps explain why some lanes end abruptly, while others have serious deficiencies.
“You can’t create a bike lane and not deal with the issue of intersections, because you’re leaving people in the middle of a traffic jungle,” says Esther Anaya, a bicycle mobility researcher at Imperial College London. “That would never happen with cars. Nobody forgets to put in a traffic light or paint the lines of the car lanes.”
A few troublesome spots in cycling lanes
Bike lane that ends abruptly in Cibeles (Madrid)
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians along Paseo de la Senda (Vitoria)
Double parking on a bike lane in Avda de Oporto (Madrid)
A dirt lane in Plaça de Tetuan (Barcelona)
A few troublesome spots in cycling lanes
Bike lane that ends abruptly in Cibeles (Madrid)
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians along Paseo de la Senda (Vitoria)
Double parking on a bike lane in Avda de Oporto (Madrid)
A dirt lane in Plaça de Tetuan (Barcelona)
A few troublesome spots in cycling lanes
Bike lane that ends abruptly in Cibeles (Madrid)
This bike lane is cut off at Plaça d’Espanya (Barcelona)
Double parking on a bike lane in Avda de Oporto (Madrid)
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians along Paseo de la Senda (Vitoria)
A dirt lane in Plaça de Tetuan (Barcelona)
A few troublesome spots in cycling lanes
Bike lane that ends abruptly in Cibeles (Madrid)
This bike lane is cut off at Plaça d’Espanya (Barcelona)
Double parking on a bike lane in Avda de Oporto (Madrid)
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians along Paseo de la Senda (Vitoria)
A dirt lane in Plaça de Tetuan (Barcelona)
EL PAÍS has identified some of these dark spots in four Spanish cities, with assistance from cycling associations.
Troublesome spots in Madrid
Conflict with parking
on Avda de los Toreros
Narrow cycling lanes
on Avda Donostiarra
Weaving in and out of traffic
on Atocha Street
Cyclists pitted against
pedestrians in Madrid Río
5 km
Troublesome spots in Madrid
Conflict with parking
on Avda de los Toreros
Narrow cycling lanes
on Avda Donostiarra
Weaving in and out of traffic
on Atocha Street
Cyclists pitted against
pedestrians in Madrid Río
5 km
Troublesome spots in Madrid
Conflict with parking
on Avda de los Toreros
Narrow cycling lanes
on Avda Donostiarra
Bike lane on Serrano Street
Weaving in and out of traffic
on Atocha Street
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians
in Madrid Río
2 km
Troublesome spots in Madrid
Conflict with parking
on Avda de los Toreros
Narrow cycling lanes
on Avda Donostiarra
Bike lane on Serrano Street
Weaving in and out of traffic
on Atocha Street
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians
in Madrid Río
2 km
Troublesome spots in Barcelona
Troublesome bike lanes
on Paseo de Valldaura
Stops and intersections
with public transportation
on Avda Diagonal
Cyclists pitted against
pedestrians
on Paseo Marítimo
5 km
Troublesome spots in Barcelona
Troublesome bike lanes
on Paseo de Valldaura
Stops and intersections
with public transportation
on Avda Diagonal
Cyclists pitted against
pedestrians
on Paseo Marítimo
5 km
Troublesome spots in Barcelona
Troublesome bike lanes
on Paseo de Valldaura
Stops and intersections
with public transportation
on Avda Diagonal
Construction area
in Plaça de Gloriès
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians
on Paseo Marítimo
Calles peatonales estrechas
en la calle Enrique Granados
2 km
Troublesome spots in Barcelona
Troublesome bike lanes
on Paseo de Valldaura
Stops and intersections
with public transportation
on Avda Diagonal
Construction area
in Plaça de Gloriès
Cyclists pitted against pedestrians
on Paseo Marítimo
Calles peatonales estrechas
en la calle Enrique Granados
2 km
Troublesome spots in Málaga
Architectural obstacles
on Cómpeta Street
Profusion of sidewalk cafés
on Mart. Maldonado Street
Dangerous intersections
on Avda de Cervantes
Unconnected lanes
on Sillita de la Reina St
2 km
Troublesome spots in Málaga
Architectural obstacles
on Cómpeta Street
Profusion of sidewalk cafés
on Mart. Maldonado Street
Dangerous intersections
on Avda de Cervantes
Unconnected lanes
on Sillita de la Reina St.
2 km
Troublesome spots in Málaga
Architectural obstacles
on Cómpeta Street
Profusion of sidewalk cafés
on Mart. Maldonado Street
Dangerous intersections
on Avda de Cervantes
Unconnected lanes
on Sillita de la Reina Street
Problems with parked cars
in Guadalhorce industrial park
2 km
Troublesome spots in Málaga
Architectural obstacles
on Cómpeta Street
Profusion of sidewalk cafés
on Mart. Maldonado Street
Dangerous intersections
on Avda de Cervantes
Unconnected lanes
on Sillita de la Reina Street
Problems with parked cars
in Guadalhorce industrial park
2 km
Troublesome spots in Vitoria
Problems with
parked cars
on streets like Gorbea,
Eulogio Serdán
and San Antonio
2 km
Troublesome spots in Vitoria
Problems with
parked cars
on streets like Gorbea,
Eulogio Serdán
and San Antonio
2 km
Troublesome spots in Vitoria
Problems with parked cars
on streets like Gorbea, Eulogio Serdán
and San Antonio (pictured below)
2 km
Troublesome spots in Vitoria
Problems with parked cars
on streets like Gorbea, Eulogio Serdán
and San Antonio (pictured below)
2 km
Cities that fail to adopt this trend could be letting a unique opportunity pass them by. “We have a chance to use the pandemic in a positive way to change mobility in our cities,” says Colville-Andersen. “If we want to avoid a boom in new cars when there is an economic recovery, we need to make options like cycling, walking or public transportation more attractive,” warns Brent Toderian.
And while provisional infrastructure is a good emergency strategy, cities need to go further. “During the deescalation, when there were no cars on the streets, there was an explosion of bikes in the cities of Spain, but as soon as traffic returned, the use of bicycles fell again,” notes Esther Anaya. “Months have gone by and we still have pop-up cycleways. The changes in mobility behavior need good support. It’s not enough to facilitate change, you still need to maintain it.”
Methodology
We took cycleway maps offered on the webpages of city halls and official agencies, and discussed them with cycling associations in each Spanish city, as well as with correspondents in various countries. We considered the cycleway classification in the Traffic Law, and unified them under the same color. We left out lanes that are shared with cars or buses as there were not considered to be additional infrastructure. We also left out shared space with pedestrians when there is no segregating element. The total amount in each city was divided by the population as listed in the National Statistics Institute (INE) to illustrate the number of kilometers of dedicated cycling infrastructure per 100,000 inhabitants.
With additional reporting by Silvia Ayuso, Ana Carbajosa, Felipe Sánchez, Guillermo Abril, Rafa de Miguel and Santiago Torrado.
Images by Santi Burgos, Albert Garcia, Kike Para and Lino Rico.
English version by Susana Urra.
Acknowledgments: Carril bici Castellana and Pedalibre (Madrid), Bicicleta Club de Catalunya (BACC), Fernando Mafé (Valencia), Biciutat de Mallorca, Biziosona (Bilbao), Murcia en bici, Asamblea Ciclista de Valladolid, Pedaleza (Zaragoza), Acontramano (Seville), Ruedas Redondas (Málaga) and Ciclistas Urbanos (Vitoria).
