The social debate about the bicycle always revolves around the same thing, its role in mobility of big cities. There is talk of infrastructure, urban planning, coexistenceof rights, of duties, of health, of accident rate, of struggle for public space, of the opportunity for people to move actively. But the bike is also an important economic asset. In different fields, such as tourism, logistics or industry. All this was discussed on Wednesday in the Senate in a working session entitled ‘Bike, city and strategy’.
And yes, a lot of cities talked about his gradual ‘amsterdamization’, but there were also experts who shared a clear message: pedals represent social and environmental progress, but also business and labor progress. ‘Grosso modo’, and as an aperitif, according to European Cyclists Federationthe bike generates in the continent about global benefits of 150,000 million euros, 50,000 more than what comes out of cruise ships. But here, under the Pyrenees, much remains to be done.
The bicycle tourism It is usually associated with cheap. Error. Not that, nor long, what happens in the rest of Europewhere the infrastructure is much more prepared and there is much more habit of traveling by pedals. Without that implying eating a piece of bread with cheese and sleeping anywhere. First, there are many older people who have been encouraged by the electric bikes, and surely they will want comfort and well-being. Second, the pandemic has triggered the urban cycling, but also that linked to leisure. According to a European Commission study carried out in 2020, only in France the cycle tourism it had grown 30% compared to pre-covid records. There is an opportunity, but in the case of Spain there are still few clues, marked paths; the view that this sector could even revitalize rural and natural areas.
people with possible
“We talk about people with money; I insist, what is needed here is a cultural change,” he said in the Senate Manuel Calvonational coordinator of the project Eurovelo, the European network of cycling routes (about 90,000 kilometres). By the way, a curious thing happens with the map of this community mesh; all the capitals are united except Madrid. Many possibilities which in Spain translates, according to the latest studies, into a turnover close to 1,620 million euros linked to bicycle tourism. Far from the 11.3 billion in Germany or the 7.5 billion in France, but it’s a start.
These figures, however, are entirely out of date, since they do not have the cycling ‘boom’ of the last two years. The potential is enormous if you take into account that our country is one of the 10 most visited on the planet, and a good part of the competition does not have our Mediterranean climateideal for pedaling, in addition to the culture, history or gastronomy. Hotels are offering more and more bicycles to their guests, but are they prepared to receive customers who bring their own from home?
The cycle logistics is another melon to open. Although it could be said, out of respect for the almost 70 companies that use bikes in Spain to distribute goods in different cities (four of them have been for more than 25 years), which is a melon already released although with a lot of fabric to cut. In the Senate he intervened Daniel RuizPresident of the Association of Cycle Logistics Companies of Spain and co-founder and head of Txitaa company that operates in Saint Sebastian since 2006, when it started with a ‘taxi-bike’ service. The last mile distribution they began to work it at the beginning of the previous decade and today they work for the main firms of parcel and they have as their headquarters a premises provided by the city council.
“It pays terrible”
It is, on a small scale, what other big cities, like Barcelonathey want to implement to achieve a double objective: reduce congestion (fewer vans circulating and double parking) and the contamination (reduction of emissions derived from this type of vehicles). But there are many “absurd” obstacles, in the opinion of this expert. One of them, precariousness. “it pays terrible“, he summed up, in a speech as entertaining as it was lucid. He specified that there are cities that they pay 1.10 euros per expedition (with up to five packages) and that rarely is the time that more than two euros are offered. “need to be more serious, have adapted spaces and with facilities as God intended. A tiny garage is not worth it for the bikes to come out and that’s it”.
regrets the huge potential lost. And the trippinglike the fact that you’re electric cargo bikes have the same limitation as any urban bike, that is, 250 watts. “It’s absurd, they put the same power cap for someone who weighs 70 kilos and goes to university than for someone who intends to carry up to 300 kilos of merchandise. That can not be, you have to change it“, he said in the Senate. In short, the person in charge of Txita asked to take a more serious sector with a lot of room for growth which, among other things, can improve the quality of life in cities, and called for prices that are competitive but not insulting so that more initiatives can arise and generate more employment.
Done right, these delivery ‘microhubs’ could do all of these things: last-mile delivery, service between storeslocal courier, home delivery of local businesses, urban removals, warehouse for shops or install lockers to collect ordered items. All this, however, in addition to entrepreneursrequires of regulatory and urban changesnew purchasing habits and realizing that bicycle logistics has professional expenses and dignity that require a certain coverage.
reduced VAT
Related news
in session Bicycle, city and strategy, organized by the Network of Cities for Bicycles, representatives of bicycle brands also took part, at a sweet moment for the sector, with a 41% growth in the last five years. Miguel Pina, CEO of Mondraker, a company based in Elche that employs 190 people and invoices 85 million euros, explained that they basically sell abroad (only 12%, in Spain) and that they have subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Germany, their main buyer. He claimed to include the bike “within the flexible remuneration“, through a ‘renting’ or a ‘leasing‘ as is already done in other parts of Europe. And he pointed out that every time some country subsidize the purchase of bicycles, the demand skyrockets. Aids, he pointed out, that are conspicuous by their absence in our country.
Jose Luis Benitezmanager Phlebi (urban electric bikes based in Seville) claimed the reduced VAT in the purchase of bicycles and regretted that in terms of components they depend so much on the Asian market. Andre Maldonadoco-founder of CapriBikes, explained that they manufacture in Portugal, a country that has moved very well to centralize this type of industry that Spain, he complained, has not been able to capitalize on. “We are willing to manufacture here, but We need help“, he concluded.