I recently returned from a visit to Paris and Barcelona. Both cities are ranked in the top 20 most bike-friendly cities on the planet by Copenhagen Design Co. As a first time visitor to Barcelona, I was incredibly impressed with its cycling infrastructure. As a recurring visitor to Paris, I noticed more bike lanes than on my last visit a couple of years ago. Paris declared 2017 the year of the bike (see Reuters article) and will be adding bike lanes and pedestrian zones on its most popular streets, including along the Louvre and in the Marais district. I suspect I will see more drastic changes on my next visit. In this post, I will dwell on Barcelona’s impressive protected bike lanes.

By 2018, Barcelona will have 300KM or 191 miles of bike lanes for 1.6 million people. This metric alone is not that impressive. Boston has a similar-sized network when adjusted for population (about 165 KM of “bike lanes” for 650 thousand people). Paris boasts 400KM for 2.2 million people. But a bike lane in Boston and a bike lane in Barcelona are two different animals. What makes these Barcelona lanes stand-out is the level of protection they offer two-wheelers. Most of these paths are protected. By contrast, in Boston, according to the Go Boston 2030 study (page 50), only 6 of 105 miles of bike lanes are physically separated from traffic.

Here are some pictures of Barcelona’s protected bike lanes. I saw a lot of oblong low bumps (a per the picture above) and delineator posts (see this resource about the different ways to protect a bike lane from traffic). The one I found most unique is the protected round-about bike lane which I believe is being considered for Somerville’s Union Square (see below).

Now we are back in Boston, back to unprotected bike lanes. See the picture below of my family and I riding the day before our Euro tour in June (Somerville Ave I think?).

After seeing the high-class bike lanes of Barcelona, I now feel even less safe riding on Boston’s streets. Until we get to 100 miles of protected bike lanes, we’d better gear up. That’s a subject for another post, or a full website dedicated to protective cycling gear. As a start, here is a list of Vision Zero safety equipment from Hobbr.