Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

Yet 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]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;cities&#x2F;2016&#x2F;may&#x2F;17&#x2F;superblocks-rescue-barcelona-spain-plan-give-streets-back-residents" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;cities&#x2F;2016&#x2F;may&#x2F;17&#x2F;superblocks-r...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;enviropaul.wordpress.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;22&#x2F;all-the-garbage-of-barcelona&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;enviropaul.wordpress.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;22&#x2F;all-the-garbage-...</a>

I 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.<p>I hope that this is THE change in most European metropolises for the future. Not only in Barcelona.

It is my experience that two things correlate positively with widespread adoption of biking:<p>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.)<p>b. Moderate temperatures at both ends of the summer-winter scale. Most people won&#x27;t bike to work at -20 or +35 Celsius.

&gt; the ride from start to finish lasts about 25 minutes.<p>That&#x27;s about 50 minutes to and fro. That&#x27;s all the exercise a child needs in a day. Wish they&#x27;ll succeed in making it every day, instead of just on Fridays.

Yesterday: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=28970792" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=28970792</a> (this is a different article)

My 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

This 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.<p>- Childhood obesity (around 30% in some areas of developed nations)<p>- Independence for children (meet friends, get to school, etc.)<p>- Time poor “taxi service” parents might save 1hr+ &#x2F; day<p>- Congestion (bikes can be even more space efficient than buses)<p>- Air quality (many developed cities exceed WHO guidelines<p>- Money saved on car payments for the poorest in society. This is a huge burden.<p>- 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?<p>- City saves money on road repair etc. Road damage is a power of vehicle weight.<p>- Local shops favoured over out of town, big box etc.

Similar, in Switzerland they have a &quot;Pedibus&quot;, 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&gt; Link (In french) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pedibus.ch&#x2F;fr&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pedibus.ch&#x2F;fr&#x2F;</a>

This 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).

Why is their school so far that they have to bike? Ideally you should just walk.

Makes 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.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Critical_Mass_(cycling)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Critical_Mass_(cycling)</a>

I 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.

2 days ago: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=28956256" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=28956256</a> (3pts, no discussion).. despite 3 posts, this article hasn&#x27;t got much traction.

By choice I use a bicycle exclusively for all my transport needs (with the obvious exceptions like furniture etc.), and I&#x27;d like to see more people get up on a bike regularly to help promote the people&#x27;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?