(Barcelona) In streets cut off from traffic, dozens of children cycle to school, escorted by parents, without fear of an accident. Launched in a district of Barcelona, this “vélobus” project is being emulated, even beyond the Spanish borders.
The cycle paths “are designed for people who get around on their own and who have a certain dexterity on the bike and not for children who are starting to get around by bike. They are very close to the streets where cars go very fast and where motorcycles come too close, ”Genís Dominguez, a 40-year-old father, told AFPTV.
“My son is 7 years old and my daughter 5 and I am a little afraid of the weak separation between the tracks and the street where the cars pass”, abounds Judit Griecs, mother of 35 years.
So these parents created the “Bicibús Eixample”, named after the district of central Barcelona where this project was launched in September, and convinced the left-wing town hall and the municipal police of Spain’s second city to cut off the streets in traffic around 8:30 am so that children can go to school safely every Friday.
For the moment, around 140 children get on their two wheels every Friday, escorted by parents on bicycles who accompany them to school, on the two “lines” of “bicibus” existing in this district.
Like a bus, these “lines” have a starting and ending point and the children join the procession when they pass by their stop.
“But in a few months, there will be in other districts”, assures Genis Dominguez, according to which parents of 35 schools of the city attended a recent meeting to start lines in their zones.
“The aim of the vélobus is to promote change towards active and sustainable mobility”, underlines the Barcelona city hall, which has made available to the project municipal police officers by bicycle and motorbike as well as a car patrol to bring up the rear.
Similar projects exist elsewhere in the world such as in Dublin for example, but the dissemination on social networks of a video that has gone viral of the Barcelona “bicycle-bus” with several dozen children, escorted by parents, cycling through a large town avenue cut off from traffic aroused particular interest.
The organizers of the Barcelona “bicycle bus” claim to have been contacted in particular by parents of pupils from San Francisco or by the town hall of Buenos Aires in Argentina, interested in this project.
In any case, the most enthusiastic are the children, smiles Genis Dominguez and “parents tell us that Friday is the day when they have the least difficulty waking them up”.