What once seemed like a pipe dream, a dream of a sunny future, is increasingly likely to become reality: a journey – called Bcivia – to travel and connect the 36 municipalities of the Barcelona metropolis by bike. For more than a decade, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) will promote the design of a powerful network of cycle paths which, once completed, will total more than 550 kilometers. It did not achieve 67% and will approve a new call for grants last October with the aim of continuing to move forward with this project.
The metropolitan organization is one of the six major priorities in the dynamic of sustainable mobility. And the bicycle, in short, is one of the key fish in this strategy. The objective of continuing to promote the urban transport system common to the metropolis of Barcelona, followed exclusively or in combination with the use of public transport, passes through two lines of work: the impetus of projects with AMBici and Bicibox, which offer public bicycles and secure parking for this type of vehicles or others with scooters, and the construction of new infrastructure.
It is clear to connect the major public transport interchanges, the economic activity polygons and the major mobility generating hubs.
Elisabet Latorre, Director of Sustainable Mobility at AMB
In this second line of work, the investment which has just been approved will be intended to design and build our cycle paths (2.38 million euros) and will increase cash routes (1 million euros), particularly in access to public transport. In addition to significant progress in citizen mobilization, these packages also aim to boost the economy and labor markets in the metropolitan area.
“This new call allows us to continue to complete the pending routes of the Bicivia network, to facilitate and promote comfortable and safe mobility by bicycle, both within the municipality and between different sites. It is also clear that connecting the main public transport interchanges, centers of economic activity and large centers generating mobility must also guarantee the safety and comfort of pedestrians”, explains the general director of sustainable mobility of the AMB, Elisabet Latorre.
Finally, the AMB completed three calls for grants to develop cycle paths and facilitate travel by bicycle. They will have 2021, 2016 and 2017 and will share an investment of 10 million euros. Thanks to the various subsidies, sponsored by the AMB and the metropolitan councils, it will be possible to build 48 kilometers of pedalable roads. With the new investment program launched on the market, Aleshores will give priority to all the projects that are part of the Bicivia network, which directly and safely connects the entire metropolis of Barcelona.
Currently, the basic structure is structured by new large groups: four verticals, which cross the metropolis from north to south and which are distributed along the course of the Llobregat and Besòs rivers, and five horizontals, four of which extend along the coastal strip and an area of the Valles.
Extension of AMBici hours
One of the other pillars of mobility impulses in these areas is the provision of a series of services to citizens. The main one in this area is AMBici, the public bicycle service owned by the AMB and managed by the TMB, which includes 2,600 bicycles and 236 stations and is active in 15 metropolitan municipalities: Badalona, Castelldefels, Cornellà de Llobregat, Esplugues de Llobregat, Gavà, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Molins de Rei, Prat de Llobregat, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Sant Joan Despí, Sant Just Desvern, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Viladecans.
Following the implementation, which will be carried out thanks to 7.7 million euros from the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan financed by the European Union through the Next Generation EU funds, the service has not stopped believing: all registered users have increased by 30% and are still active. more than 22,500 items used regularly. In 2024, 1.6 million trips will be recorded and in 2025, it is expected that 2 million trips will be exceeded.
67% of the Bicivia network which must connect the entire metropolitan area is now complete
In order to support and continue to expand this success, the AMBici pass will extend its usual operating hours by two hours in August: it will thus be able to be used from five in the morning until late morning every day of the year, including weekdays, public holidays and public holidays. A measure which of course responds to user demand. Data shows that from 11 to 12 vespers and hi there is more demand than five to six matí.
Furthermore, according to a survey completed in July 2024, 50% of users say they would use AMBici more if night hours were extended on weekdays and public holidays, and 40% if the extension was extended on weekdays.
Regardless, registered AMBici users have increased by 30% and are expected to exceed two million trips.
In addition, the Passat Juliol will also activate the subscription for the first time. Concretely, this new rate offers three possibilities – pass for one, two or three days to which the corresponding rate has been allocated, zinc, nine or two euros – and allows unlimited travel from weekends to 30 minutes.
Who are you targeting? It allows sporadic users – for example, tourists who visit Barcelona and the metropolitan area for certain people or citizens who travel to this territory only during weekend periods, looking for access to the wide range of leisure offers, among others, to access an unsatisfactory and complete subscription service. The AMBici per tot els dies de l’any no els hi provided an economic account.
It is not obligatory for the AMB to offer the Biciempresa program, which consists of providing, free of charge and temporarily for a maximum period of six months, access to electric and mechanical bicycles to workers of certain companies. In June 2025, the AMB will approve the third call for this program which, as a new one, will allow users to purchase the bicycle they have benefited from – if they still want it – once the cessation period has expired.
Serves with a creixent request
One of the other services that is experiencing exponential growth is Bicibox, where the AMB provides Spanish citizens with a place to park their bike or scooter: in 2024 it will break the record for uses recorded each year, exceeding 382,000.
Bicibox has more than 200 modules, eleven high-capacity parking lots, more than 3,000 spaces and more than 25,000 people registered, all fulfilling the mission of promoting intermodality and sustainable travel in the Barcelona metropolis.
“It is very important to promote bicycle-public transport intermodality and this is a key step for us,” explains AMB Minister of Sustainable Mobility, Elisabet Latorre. “This is the way forward to make cycling a real means of everyday transportation, making it an alternative for most citizens,” he said.
In different countries, AMB has installed these parking lots: in street modules (with 14 spaces), in high-capacity parking lots in railway stations like Viladecans, Gavà and Badalona, in the halls of metro stations like Pompeu Fabra on the L2 line to Badalona and in municipal premises. Few streets: for example, on Avenida Sant Joan Despí in Barcelona. For the moment, it has established five new high-capacity parking lots which will serve strategic metropolitan points.
This service, recalls the AMB, is most severely confronted with the ban for an indefinite period on the use of electric scooters and other personal mobility vehicles (PMV) in public transport. If one of the main alternatives for parking scooters and VMPs in stations and bus stops has been developed, it is in favor of facilitating intermodality between scooters and public transport.
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