Thursday 29 December 2011

bicing will open two hours longer on weekdays

via abc.es: Bicing amplía el horario nocturno tras cerrar el año con un 30% más de viajes :
"El servicio municipal de alquiler de bicicletas "Bicing" ampliará dos horas más el horario entre semana, hasta las 2 de la madrugada, después de cerrar 2011 con un aumento del 30 por ciento de los viajes, ha informado hoy el Ayuntamiento de Barcelona."
Some other interesting bits from the article:
  • Compared with 2010 data, this year there have been 30 percent more trips, so that a bike uses have increased from 11.1 to 14.6 million.
  • One measure is to introduce advertising on the bicycles, for which the City is already negotiating with some interested advertisers 

The announcement of the change in hours is also available on the bicing website.



Thursday 15 December 2011

Bicing subscription increases to 40 Euro + 4 Euro Insurance

via bcn.cat "Bicing will have a compulsory, 4-euro insurance policy":
"Bicing users will have to take out a mandatory 4-euro insurance policy that covers third-party claims, first-party damage and injury, and legal assistance. This is in addition to the rise in the Bicing charge from 35 to 40 euros announced among the new public-sector charges for 2012."
The article also points out that this will rise further in the future until the users are covering 40% of the cost of the service, with the current change they are now paying 25%.

The increase in costs is 15% excluding the insurance. At the same time the city managed to reduce the cost of bicing from 13850000 Euro by 350000 Euro, which is a decrease of 2%.

As I personally don't live in the bicing zone any more, I have to reconsider continuing with my subscription. I am going to continue using it next year, but there are is certainly a limit I am willing to pay per month.

I am also not happy with the compulsory insurance policy, unless the legal assistance will help me with ridiculous charges by the police. I fear this is just money going to the insurance company without any benefits to the user.

More information about the change also on bicing.cat.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

There are now as many people using bicycles as the Rodalies network

Via lavanguardia.com and elpais.com
"Unas 450.000 catalanes utilizan a diario o casi a diario la bicicleta. En el año 2006 lo hacían poco más de la mitad, unas 246.000 personas. Es un incremento muy importante en el uso frecuente de la bicicleta. En este momento ya hay tantos usuarios diarios de este medio de transporte como usuarios de la red de Rodalies, indicó ayer el director general de Territori i Mobilitat de la Generalitat, Ricard Font."
Some numbers:

  • 450.000 use a bicycle each day
  • 1,4 mill. use a bicycle once a week
  • 2,5 mill. use a bicycle sometimes
  • 3,5 mill. own a bicycle



Wednesday 21 September 2011

Copenhagenize Index 2011: Barcelona on third place

Barcelona makes third on the Copenhagenize Index of bicycle friendly cities ( http://www.copenhagenize.eu/index/ ). Only Amsterdam and Copenhagen rank higher.

Quote: "There were no bicycles in Barcelona a mere five years ago and now the city puts many Emerging Bicycle Cities to shame with their excellent efforts bringing the bicycle back to the urban landscape and marketing it positively."

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Cycling Dope: Counting Cyclists in Barcelona

from Cycling Dope: Counting Cyclists in Barcelona:

"Not bad at all. A Bicycle Counter in Barcelona, on Passeig de Sant Joan. We pass it every day on the way to the beach. It's the busiest bicycle lane in the city but it's slow these days with everyone on holiday." continue on Cycling Dope ...

Thursday 7 April 2011

Bicing Spider: bicycle sharing data visualization (Beta)

Check out Bicing Spider: bicycle sharing data visualization (Beta) , a bicing visualization too for OS X.

Bicing Spider: bicycle sharing data visualization from JP Carrascal on Vimeo.

From the site: "This app will load a (static Google) map of Barcelona and will superimpose a visualization of the current state of the bicing stations near the cursor. Every station is represented with a color-coded circle: the radius of the circle is inversely proportional to the distance from the cursor position (the closer, the bigger), and its color represents the amount of bikes available. If green, the station is full of bikes. If red, there are no bikes available. Possible tones in-between will give an idea of the amount of bikes."

Friday 25 February 2011

bcn.cat: Barcelona is the first Spanish city to install traffic lights for bike

bcn.cat reports:
The City Council is installing specific traffic lights for bikes in order to improve the safety of cyclists. These are smaller, lower and make use of LED technology.
Now people just learn to stop at red lights.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Situp-cycle.com: "Toss the Albatross: Bike share needs helmet choice"

Good article on Situp-cycle.com: "Toss the Albatross: Bike share needs helmet choice" about how the helmet requirement holds back the bike sharing scheme in Melbourne. With an video report from a similar sized scheme in Dublin.

I am pretty sure that bicing wouldn't be the success that it is if helmets were compulsory.