"The bicycle has to be an essential pillar of any sustainable urban mobility policy" in a tripartite axis of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. This is the conclusion highlighted by the researcher and professor at the University of Seville, Ricardo Marqués, at the conference held this Friday at the Municipal Archive of Arrecife. The event was attended by a large number of people, including political representatives and technicians from different local institutions, as well as citizens interested in new trends in sustainable mobility.
"The bicycle must have space in cities and a positive discrimination that favors its use," said Ricardo Marqués. That is why he added that "bike lanes must be well designed", because small details, such as the placement of trash cans or the state of the trees, are decisive in the success or failure" of these bicycle mobility initiatives. For this, we must take a starting point, which is the pedestrianization of spaces.
Marqués pointed out that "in Arrecife, for example, the solution may be to paint the maritime avenue to pedestrianize it", citing Times Square as an example, where this was done and they managed to have the space occupied by people. "The entire Arrecife waterfront offers an important infrastructure for the use of bicycles", with the possibility of installing a public bicycle station every 300 or 500 meters, he added. In another sense, he commented that "In Lanzarote, promoting cycle tourism can be an impressive source of income" and a pillar of the island's economy".
Ricardo Marqués assured that "the bicycle has been expelled from public roads, because all the engineering is designed for the automobile". He asserted that the current mobility system is tremendously inefficient and "the great Achilles heel of non-compliance" with the Kyoto protocol. Likewise, the university professor has highlighted the "absolute dependence" on the automobile by citizens. "Children have stopped going to school by bike or walking, but now their parents take them by car," he commented to illustrate this model, which he has described as "inefficient, polluting, congested, dangerous and unhealthy", among other things. He also assured that "it generates obese people with cardiovascular diseases".
"It is the economic and non-dangerous means of transport"
"The bicycle is the most efficient means of transport in relation to the speed at which you travel, the pollution it generates and the space it occupies", commented Marqués, apart from being "inclusive", since everyone can use it, "economic and not dangerous". Despite its benefits, the professor at the University of Seville commented that "safe networks of bike lanes" are necessary, where the connectivity and continuity of the roads through the city, as well as the directivity and flatness, are important. It is about enabling a connected network of bike lanes, since enabling isolated lanes can even be counterproductive, since their low use can give arguments to the detractors of bike lanes.
Ricardo Marqués has opted for two-way roads and has pointed out that the ideal thing to build them is to "take space that was previously for automobiles". Likewise, the researcher has pointed out that cyclists should go in a place located between that of pedestrians and that of parked cars and has commented that the "bike lanes in the median, as has been done in some cities, is barbaric".
In another sense, he assured that nothing happens by removing parking spaces, but you have to know where to do it. For this reason, he commented that the easiest thing is to "go in the early morning and see how many cars are parked", because that way you know "if there is a real parking problem for the neighbors".
"The current model is inefficient, polluting and unhealthy"
"It is important to seek an orderly coexistence between bicycles and pedestrians" commented Marqués, who has banished the myths that bike lanes are not made in some cities because "there is no bicycle culture, they take up parking space or they run over pedestrians". He has also debunked the belief that new cyclists do it out of environmental awareness, assuring that most do it "because it is more comfortable or economical". Likewise, he has bet that "all active mobility, which does not depend on an engine" goes through said road.
Marqués commented that he does not see it necessary to raise awareness among the population to promote the use of bicycles. The best campaign is to make the bike lane, he said, since from his experience in Seville all they did was a prior survey to find out if there would be an adequate volume of bicycles and people interested in using it if they had adequate infrastructure.
The mayor of Arrecife, Eva de Anta, was present at the conference and stressed the need to carry out measures to have a "sustainable, clean and efficient" mobility in the city. For her part, the Councilor for Industry and Commerce of the Cabildo, Ariagona González, thanked Lanzarote Media for this initiative on the occasion of Bicycle Day and highlighted that the Cabildo pursues "more efficient forms of transport". For his part, among those present was the mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, who has announced a project to pedestrianize some parts of Costa Teguise.
The event has been organized by Lanzarote Media, with the sponsorship of the Area of Transport and Mobility of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and with the collaboration of the Mobility Council of the Arrecife City Council.
