Friday 26 October 2007

This Just In - Travel guides, travel tips, and trip planning advice for popular destinations from BudgetTravel.com

This Just In - Travel guides, travel tips, and trip planning advice for popular destinations from BudgetTravel.com: "A spokesperson for Barcelona's program has confirmed that this process should work smoothly for American visitors. Weekly subscriptions are €1, or about $1.40;"
I didn't realize that they do weekly subscription. And with the current wait of three and more weeks until you receive your card you have to plan well ahead.

bicicanarias.com » Blog Archive » El 10% de los usuarios del Bicing dejan en casa el vehículo privado

bicicanarias.com » Blog Archive » El 10% de los usuarios del Bicing dejan en casa el vehículo privado
Octubre 26th, 2007 by Bicicanarias Su aportación a la movilidad sostenible es modesta, pero muy emblemática. Y solo es el principio. En poco más de medio año, el Bicing ya ha logrado cambiar algunos hábitos viciosos en el tráfico de Barcelona. Así, casi un 10% de los usuarios de la bicicleta pública han renunciado al vehículo privado para estos desplazamientos urbanos, que en general suelen ser bastante cortos.

6 new stations


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  • Ausiàs Marc, 122 - 128 cantonada amb Sardenya
  • Cartagena, 239 bis cantonada amb Provença
  • Girona, 126 cantonada amb Diagonal
  • Atlàntida, 82
  • Guipúscoa, 103 -105 amb Cantàbria
  • Guipúscoa, 158 amb Ca n'Oliva

Wednesday 24 October 2007

bikeradar: Paris And Barca Bike Schemes To Expand | BikeRadar.com

Paris And Barca Bike Schemes To Expand | BikeRadar.com: "Barcelona's bike rental scheme is on a roll, with plans for fifteen times as many cycles as were available on day one. The start of the congestion-busting programme saw 200 two-wheelers for hire at 14 stations across the Spanish city in March."

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Monday 22 October 2007

Traffic bylaw focuses on protecting pedestrians and cyclists

From bcn.es:
Barcelona will have another 28 kilometres of cycle lanes in the coming months ... "What we want to do by introducing the bylaw is guarantee road safety, for example, by preventing cyclists from going through traffic lights on red or motor vehicles from using lanes reserved for bikes," said Mr Narváez. Apart from reporting on the application of the bylaw, he announced that the Council would create another 28 kilometres of cycle lanes in the city over the next few months. Two-way cycle lanes will be introduced on stretches of a number of streets, including Comte d'Urgell, Provença, Vilamari, Bruc, Muntaner and Ribes. Police statistics During the first month the Guàrdia Urbana penalised 262 cyclists for not respecting traffic lights and 92 for riding incorrectly, for example, on pavements of less than 5 metres or with less than 3 metres free space. They also penalised 273 two- and four-wheeled vehicles parked or stopped in cycle lanes and 483 for driving in a cycle lane. ...
I cut the non-bicycle bits, read the rest at the source. bicing-spotting: highest bike number=2336; new station under construction at: Carrer d'Enric Granados, 103

Friday 19 October 2007

poqueque - Mapa de Bicing

The guy from El blog del Edi has a pdf map with all bicing station, which he updates every now and then: poqueque - Mapa de Bicing

12 new stations 19.10.2007


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  • Passeig Marítim, 31
  • Plaça del Mar, 1 - 5
  • Passeig de Colom, alineada a la barana Rda. Litoral, davant del núm. 5
  • Pl. Joanic amb c/ Bruniquer, 59 -61
  • c/ Londres, 53
  • c/ Floridablanca, 31 - 33
  • Pl. Jean Genet, alineada a la tanca del col·legi
  • c/ Marqués d'Argentera, 1
  • Pg. Salvat Papasseït, 2
  • c/ Rosa Sensat davant del núm. 9 - 11
  • c/ Pujades, 1
  • c/ Viriat, 45

Tuesday 16 October 2007

Bicing

Bicing: "16.10.2007 RESUELTAS LAS INCIDENCIAS DE LOS �LTIMOS D�AS EN LAS ESTACIONES BICING. Finalizado el proceso de adaptaci�n del software, ya puedes continuar disfrutando del Bicing con normalidad. Se ha finalizado el proceso de adaptaci�n del software del sistema Bicing que en los �ltimos d�as ha ocasionado interrupciones moment�neas en diferentes estaciones. Lamentamos las molestias que este hecho te haya podido ocasionar."
Seems like bicing have sorted out the software problems. Lets see how many users this one can deal with.

7.5th Floor � Blog Archive � Cyclist Dynamics in Barcelona

7.5th Floor � Blog Archive � Cyclist Dynamics in Barcelona
"Over the weekend, I collected minute-by-minute data of the usage of Bicing (community bicycle program in Barcelona) bikes. The animation of these spatio-temporal data slightly reveals the dynamics of “cyclists” hanging out at the beach on Sunday afternoon (left) and then returning downtown in the evening"
Fabien is doing statistics on bicing too. And I must say, his look much nicer.

Friday 12 October 2007

new station at the beach

Finally another station at the beach. And near my gym. Though probably still always full.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Bicing BSOD


Bicing BSOD
Originally uploaded by camars
bicing runs Windows CE.net

six new stations


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  • Passatge Mercader, 18
  • c/ Casanova, 141-149 enfront de l'estació 76
  • c/ Aragó, 629
  • Pl. Urquinaona, 11
  • Travessera de Gràcia, 92
  • c/ Indústria, 10

news from bicing

I wish they had a rss feed for their news. This was translated by google translate 09.10.2007 THE STATION OF THE C/PROVENÇA WITH THE C/ROGER OF LLÚRIA, WILL TEMPORARILY REMAIN OUT OF SERVICE. Until next warning, the Bicing station located in c/Provença nº 322, will remain out of service due to works of electrical canalization in this point. We communicated to you that the Bicing station of c/Provença with c/Roger of Llúria will remain out of service, due to the works of electrical canalization that are being executed in this point 05.10.2007 CHANGES IN THE SOFTWARE OF SYSTEM BICING With the purpose of improving the service they are estan making computer science readjustments that can cause some problems in the stations. During these days some changes are being made in the software of the Bicing system, this fact can cause that some stations are out of service sporadically. Since these problems are of short duration, we recommended to you that you wait for in the station minutes until the system recovers and can use the service. We are working to solve these problems with the greater possible brevity. You excuse the annoyances. 04.10.2007 WE TRANSFERRED STATION NÚM. 56 OF LOCATION. One of the two stations located in the Boulevard nº 3, is transferred to the Av. Vestibule of Sta. Madrona, 2-4. One of the two stations located in the Boulevard nº 3, tomorrow Friday will be out of service, to make the change from location to the Av. Vestibule of Sta. Madrona, 2-4. bicing watch Placa Universidad was broken this morning. Black Screen. Maybe because of the rain. bicing spotting Highest bike number seen so far: #2081

Wednesday 10 October 2007

bicing on "Red Sceen Of Wait"

It seems that bicing has noticed the problems with the "Red Screen Of Wait" too. Saying that the problems are usually short are a bit of an understatement though. I noticed people waiting for more than 15 minutes on a station and then giving up.
Apreciado/a usuario/a:

Debido a la instalación de nuevas estaciones Bicing y con la finalidad de mejorar el servicio, se están realizando readaptaciones informáticas, hecho que puede provocar que algunas estaciones dejen de funcionar momentáneamente. Dado que estas interrupciones son de corta duración, te recomendamos que esperes en la estación unos minutos, hasta que el sistema vuelva a estar operativo y puedas utilizar el servicio.

Estamos trabajando para que esta adaptación del sistema sea lo más rápida posible y tenga la mínima incidencia en los usuarios. Disculpad las molestias.

Servicio de atención al cliente http://www.bicing.com/

Monday 8 October 2007

stolen bicing is black

Well, I say stolen, it might not be. Maybe it was just phased out bicycle and someone worked on it to make it usable again. I noticed the bicycle today on Ronda Sant Antoni opposite of Miro. Why someone would take off the basket in front, remove all the mudguards and paint the whole thing black is a mystery to me. Wouldn't it be easier to steal a good bike? It is not like the bicing bicycles are any good. The brakes are usually broken (as in this bike), the gears are no good and the saddles tend to adjust them self down while you are riding. On the other hand it looks kind of cool in black and without the basket. A bit like a low rider for the poor.

no cycling on rambla catalunya

Cycling has be banned on Rambla de Catalunya for a while now, but I just managed to take a picture of the new signs on the pavements now. This is annoying, because it is the nicest way for me to commute to work. I guess this had to happen. Bicing made cycling in Barcelona so popular that the laws had to be changed to protect pedestrians. This also means that I can use the roads without feeling too bad. The motorists just have to get used to it now and it seems to work, riding on the road is much more relaxed now. Another solution would be more cycling lanes, but that takes time and in my opinion they are the most dangerous place to ride a bike unless there is a hard barrier between the lane, cars and pedestrians.

Friday 5 October 2007

C/Girona 126

bicing are building a new station at C/Girona 126. "Red Screen Of Wait" is still happening in the morning and evening.

Wednesday 3 October 2007

My first set of bicing statistics. I have been collecting them for a while and this is just a taste. I plan to do more statistics, for example: usage by bario, turnaround, number of unavailable station slots, number of stations over time, ... Tell me if you have more ideas.

Tuesday 2 October 2007

pictures

 

not enough phone lines

After the previous problems of bicing:
  • not enough stations at the beginning
  • full stations, because there are not enough vans moving them around
  • empty stations for the same reason and because there are not enough bikes
we got a brand new one now. Lets call it the "Red Screen Of Wait". It usually happens at the rush hour before or after work, the stations can't build up a phone connection to the main office and you have to wait and try again and again until you get through. It is not too bad, but I hope they will work on that problem.
They plan to increase the number of stations to 200 with 3000 bicycles till end of this year, so some more investment in to the rest of the system makes sense too.

first post

I thought I start a blog with some information about bicing. For those who are not familiar with bicing, have a look at the page on wikipedia. It is a public bicycle rental service in Barcelona which at the moment has 104 station and 1500 bicycles. It started early 2007 and proved to be pretty popular. I use it nearly every day to get to and from work, to the gym or the beach.