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Topic: Cycling Culture in Sevilla

Title: Cycling in Sevilla: A Pedal-Powered City

Objectives:

To analyze the current state of cycling culture in Seville, including infrastructure, policies, and public perception.

To analyze the impact of cycling on reducing traffic congestion, promoting sustainability, and enhancing public health and well-being

Identify actions taken to promote cycling, and the barriers that must be overcome in achieving these goals

Methodology:

Data collection through online resources

Research into the public cycling company, Sevici

Compare Sevilla cycling culture to other countries

Interviews with cycling groups and clubs in Sevilla

Bibliographical References:

Garrido, M. P., & Parra, D. C. (2019). Cycling in Seville: From the threat of extinction to the epitome of a southern European cycling city. In Understanding Cycling: Its Past, Present and Future (pp. 167-186). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Haustein, S., Møller, M., & Nielsen, T. A. S. (2019). Cycling Cities: The European Experience. Springer.

Marqués, R. “Sevilla: A Successful Experience of Bicycle Promotion in a ...” Witpress, www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/SC14/SC14065FU1.pdf. Accessed 5 Mar. 2024.

Pardo, C. F., Ruiz, T. L., & Garrido, M. P. (2016). A qualitative analysis of cyclists’ experiences with the built environment in Seville. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 37, 31-42

Urbanismo Sevilla. (n.d.). Informes SEVICI [PDF document]. Retrieved from https://www.urbanismosevilla.org/areas/sostenibilidad-innovacion/sevilla-en-bici/ficheros/informes-sevici

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From 2006 to 2011 Sevilla experienced a rapid growth in urban cycling, from a negligible participation in the modal split up to 9% of the total mechanical trips.

Using the bicycle as a primary or complementary mode of transportation is acknowledged to have multiple benefits both in terms of people’s health and wellbeing as well as achieving cheaper costs both for the individual and the community and less environmental pollution. Promoting the use of the bicycle is thus seen as an essential strategy to improve citizens’ quality of life and reduce the adverse effects of the car-centric urban mobility plans and policies, which characterised previous decades

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Its flat terrain and dry weather favour cycling, except in summer, when temperatures become very high. However, the absence of any cycling infrastructure prevented the development of utilitarian cycling until very recently, when the percentage of bicycle trips rose above a 5% of the modal split.

A basic network was built in just two years, and after 5 years, i.e. between 2006 and 2010, most important cycleways were finished

built directional because if bicycle traffic grows above the capacity of a bi-directional cycleway, building its counterpart at the opposite side of the street – as it is presently done in many Dutch cities – can be an easy solution.

took over parking spaces- This building technique was controversial, giving rise to conflicts with neighbours (who lost parking spaces) and pedestrians, who interpreted that the cycleways were built on the sidewalks

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According to EU statistics a mere 1.6% of Spaniards nominate the bike as their main mode of transport, even less than in the UK.

For many years Seville had only about 0.5% of journeys made by bike, with roads choked by four rush hours a day, due to siestas.

A small group of cycle campaigners spent years vainly pushing for change, among them Ricardo Marques Sillero, who recalls first arguing for bike lanes in 1992.

“As soon as the building work was finishing and the fences were removed the cyclists just came. The head of the building team, who’d been very sceptical about the How Seville transformed itself into the cycling capital of southern Europe | Cities | ... Página 2 de 5 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/28/seville-cycling-capital-southern-euro... 17/11/2016 process, called me and said, ‘Where have all those cyclists come from?’ That’s when I knew for sure it was going to work. The came from all over the city.”

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In 2007 the City Council approved the Bike Masterplan, which defined a cycle network of 120 km, as well as other measures for promoting cycling.

The main guidelines for the cycle network design were [8]:

1) Segregation: The whole network was segregated from motorised traffic.

2) Connectivity: The network was designed to connect the main trip attractors with the main residential areas.

3) Continuity: All bike paths make a continuous network without gaps along it.

4) Homogeneity: All the cycleways share a uniform pavement and design.

5) Bi-directionality: Almost all cycleways are bi-directional.

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Regarding vehicles involved in bicycle accidents, motorised vehicles were involved in a 77.2% of the accidents with victims in the whole period 2006–2011. This shows that, in spite of the segregation from motorised traffic, most bicycle accidents are still collisions with motor vehicles. Pedestrians were involved in a 7.1% of the accidents with victims in the same period.

It has been reported that compulsory helmets can result in a decrease in the number of cyclist [28, 29], specifically in public bike schemas-

Respondents were also asked to give their opinion on this hypothetical compulsory helmet regulation. Most of them (61% of private bike users and 64% of public bike users) were against this regulation. A 32% of private bike users and a 23% of public bike users supported this kind of regulation. We feel that the aforementioned results, altogether with the positive evolution of bicycle traffic accidents after the implementation of the network of cycleways, introduce doubts about the opportunity of this kind of regulation, at least in a city like Sevilla.

It has been shown that cyclists perceived a higher feeling of safety on roads with physical separation from motorised vehicle traffic while perceiving to be most at risk on roads with mixed traffic

However, unlike London’s much criticised “cycle superhighways” – where riders are protected by little more than blue paint – Seville’s cyclists enjoy a kerb and a fence.

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Women tend to cycle mostly for non-commuting trips such as travel with children and to carry shopping and other goods

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In 2007, shortly after the first cycleways were made, a public bike sharing system was launched in exchange for advertising spaces on the street furniture [8, 13]. The success was immediate, reaching a maximum of 59,455 associates in December 2009, two years and four months after the system started

Presently, the system has 2,650 bikes in 260 stations, and is stabilized with a number of associates slightly below 45.000 and 6 to 7 uses per bicycle in a typical business day

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Damant-Sirois revealed four distinct cyclist types: "dedicated cyclists", "path-using cyclists", "fairweather utilitarians", and "leisure cyclists"

Leisure- is composed of people using the bicycle exclusively for sport or recreational activity, mostly in rural areas, with low cycling frequency and a clear preference for using the car for their daily travel.

Resolute Cyclists, is composed of cyclists that prefer using the bicycle instead of the private car and cycle often for their everyday trips, especially for commuting. (netherlands and sweden

Convenience Cyclists, is composed of cyclists that use the bicycle for personal business or recreational activities, have moderate riding frequency and choose the bike in the daily trips similarly to cars. Convenience cyclists mainly cycle in urban areas (city and town). The results suggest that participants in this cluster are more likely to live in a strong cycling culture country (i.e., The Netherlands, Hungary) and give importance to the several benefits that cycling holds, in particular environmental-related benefits.

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However, cycling tourism has experienced great growth, such that diverse bike hire services exist, including Bicibike (located at Santa Justa Station), Bike Away (cycling bikes, foldable mountain bikes available), Rent a Bike Sevilla (offers tours to discover the city on two wheels), Sevilla Bike Tour (based in Triana, this company organises cycling routes and they rent out bikes by hours, days and week) and Centerbici (whose general headquarters is in the city centre, next to Plaza de la Alfalfa), among others.

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Regular cyclists are very common in the Netherlands

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Regular cyclists are very common in the Netherlands

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In the Netherlands, approximately four out of 10 respondents (43%) daily. This compared to roughly three in 10 respondents in Denmark (30%) and Finland (28%) who also cycled daily. The EU average was 12%.

Only 5% of participants in France said they cycled daily, and 4% in the UK.

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Regular cyclists are very common in the Netherlands

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Regular cyclists are very common in the Netherlands

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What does this look like? In the United States and Canada:

The number of bike trips taken each year tripled between 1977 and 2009

The number of people biking to work doubled between 2000 and 2009—accounting for 0.6 percent, or about 766,000 Americans, of the working population

In 2012, 865,000 American workers cycled to work (an increase of 11 percent from 2009)

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As in many countries in Europe, roads became increasingly congested and cyclists were squeezed to the kerb after car ownership skyrocketed

The jump in car numbers caused a huge rise in the number of deaths on the roads. In 1971 more than 3,000 people were killed by motor vehicles, 450 of them children.

The Dutch faith in the reliability and sustainability of the motor vehicle was also shaken by the Middle East oil crisis of 1973, when oil-producing countries stopped exports to the US and Western Europe.

These twin pressures helped to persuade the Dutch government to invest in improved cycling infrastructure and Dutch urban planners started to diverge from the car-centric road-building policies being pursued throughout the urbanising West.

These are clearly marked, have smooth surfaces, separate signs and lights for those on two wheels, and wide enough to allow side-by-side cycling and overtaking.

Even before they can walk, Dutch children are immersed in a world of cycling. As babies and toddlers they travel in special seats on "bakfiets", or cargo bikes.

The state also plays a part in teaching too, with cycling proficiency lessons a compulsory part of the Dutch school curriculum. All schools have places to park bikes and at some schools 90% of pupils cycle to class.

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Before the lanes were built, Calvo says, Seville had about 10 bikes shops. Now it has around 50. One shop in the old town, Santa Cleta, which lends me the bike on which I follow Calvo, runs courses for unemployed locals to become trained cycle mechanics

The effect is also being felt in Seville’s vital tourism industry. On Tripadvisor, the traveller-recommended rankings of attractions and activities in the city are littered with bike tours.

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In Denmark, 16 percent of all trips—and 25 percent of trips less than 3 miles—are made by bike.

As in North America, urban areas see more cycling than rural—even then, it’s estimated that half of Copenhagen residents bike to work or school.

Bike ownership is another big indicator of ubiquitous bicycling culture: 90 percent of Denmark’s population own a bike while only 56 percent own a car.