“This city should be crowded with bikes”: An observational study on the safety and convenience of bicycle infrastructure in Córdoba, Spain

Abstract

Cities worldwide have been looking to undo decades of car-centric planning to make their streets quieter, safer, healthier, less congested, more environmentally sustainable, and to free up space for other urban activities. To this end, they have sought to expand and improve their bicycle infrastructure in order to incentivise cycling and increase bike mode share in their mobility mix.

One such city is Córdoba, a small city in southern Spain, whose weather and topography are quite favourable to cycling, and which has made some positive advances on cycling over the years. And yet, cycling statistics in Córdoba remain exceptionally low, expert groups rate Córdoba’s bike network as among the worst in the country, and local cycling advocates accuse the municipality of lacking the commitment to properly invest in its bike infrastructure.

Since there is little-to-no academic research on cycling in Córdoba, this thesis investigates the quality of the city’s bicycle network to see where and how it promotes (and fails to promote) the safety and convenience of cyclists. Thus, this thesis’ research question is as follows: To what extent do roadways in Córdoba meet the safety and convenience standards proposed by the international literature on cycling infrastructure quality?

To answer this, the author has surveyed roadways on four areas of the city – two neighbourhoods and two arterial ‘routes’ – and recorded observations based on several criteria, such as a bikeway’s segregation, width, visibility, placement, or the presence of traffic calming and bike parking on the street. All these observations are evidenced by way of photographs, taken at the same time as observations were recorded.

The findings of this study support the judgement of experts and cycling advocates, as they reveal that Córdoba’s bike infrastructure indeed has many deficiencies that put cyclists at risk or fail to make cycling easy and convenient. These include inadequate segregation on busy roads, a severe lack of traffic calming, and a similarly severe lack of bike parking. This author puts forth a series of policy proposals for the municipality to ameliorate these issues, such as reworking parts of its bike network, adding more amenities, and producing a comprehensive bike infrastructure masterplan.