So we’re planning a trip to Barcelona and I’m wondering about the feasibility of bicycling around the city. The buses and metro are supposed to be ubiquitous, and we’re all about walking, so it may not make much sense to bother renting some bikes. That being said, in my research I found some advice from the Barcelona City Council’s get around Barcelona by bike: Safety page.
However, for the majority of age groups (those between 18 and 50), it has been statistically proved that cars represent a much larger overall risk than bicycles and that the positive effects of cycling on health and quality of life greatly exceed the years of life lost in accidents.
I have to wonder if the last bit is considerably less startling in Spanish.
Huh, that is alarming! I might personally advise against such biking unless you have the danger tolerance of a city bike messenger, in that it’s going to be like biking in Manhattan or some such. The subways are really easy and not expensive, and the sight-seeing bus, while not very “cool,” is a very useful way to see the city (it has rooftop seating) while going quickly to the widely spread-out sites of interest.
I’m excited for you guys getting to go there! Let me know if you want any other recommendations or anything. Yea rah Spain!
I do a bit of street riding in San Diego, which is certainly no Manhattan, but I’m not too concerned about playing in traffic. Christy is less sanguine about such things, so we’ll see. There aren’t enough bike lanes/trails to make staying out of the street a reality. We’ll eyeball it when we arrive, but my guess is it’ll be a non-starter. We are taking a bike tour from the school, so that should be fun.
I’d love to hear other ideas of what to do in Barcelona! I think we have the main tourist places down, but any other ideas, hints on hanging out in Spain or whatever would rock.