-23 May, 2020
More and more citizens are agreeing that we need to change our transport habits, but among all these citizens aware of sustainable mobility, there are still discrepancies on how to promote this way of moving around the city; especially when we talk about bicycle as a method of transportation, use or non- use of segregated bike lanes ?
Cyclists critics of the segregated bike lanes, use as an argument the accidents in these bicycle lanes to oppose those who support the increase of segregated roads for cyclists. There are collectives, who often report that this infrastructure is more insecure than pedaling on the street among other vehicles.
In contrast, Ricardo Marqués, professor at the University of Seville, argues: “Our study shows just the opposite: segregated bike lanes reduce the number of accidents and increase the sense of safety for cyclists.” In his work, it is demonstrated that the accidents of cyclists in Seville were reduced by half after the installation of a complete network of specific bike lanes.
In fact, the statistics give weight to his argument: between 2000 and 2005 there were 18 accidents with cyclists involved per million trips, while between 2007 and 2013 this figure fell to 7.70 accidents per million.
It is important to keep in mind that both, statistics and opinions change depending on the city and the cycling infrastructure it enjoys. For instance, the design of Seville has specific characteristics, since it forms a complete network that is segregated from traffic. On the other hand, Madrid, mixes different types of bicycle routes making their infrastructure a bit more chaotic.
More segregated bike lanes, more cyclists on the streets.
Professor Marqués worked on a study, in which he stressed that, the change in mobility in Seville “has been a success is a very effective way to promote the use of the bike. The increase in safety encourages more people to take their bicycle. “Sevilla multiplied the daily commutes, from 15,000 to 72,000 after completing its extensive network of bike lanes.
ZICLA and bike lanes.
At ZICLA we have been working for more than ten years to transform waste into new materials for industry and new products for urban furniture, and traffic in cities. Aware of the importance of segregated bike lanes for sustainable mobility, we have developed two product lines to segregate these routes.
On the one hand, we have the Zebra® family that guarantees a safe condition for cyclists and for other road users.
Alternatively, we have also developed the Zipper system, a modular system to segregate traffic flows formed by two pieces of high visibility thanks to its retroreflective paint.