Naked bicyclists, folding bikes, balloon bikes, and more — enjoy this bicycle photo tour of Barcelona.

The third B in a row, Barcelona is next on this list of great bicycle cities (right ahead of Basel, Switzerland and Bogota, Columbia). As a dense city with a wonderful climate, Barcelona is naturally a wonderful place for bicyclists. However, a lot has been done to make it more so. The biggest carrot encouraging bicycling, by far, is Barcelona’s relatively new bike sharing program — Bicing. This is perhaps the best or second best bike sharing program in the world. It is one of a new generation of sophisticated, smart bike sharing programs. Read more about it on page 2.

Beyond Bicing, the city is also working on creating new bicycling routes and bike parking and it hosts fun Bike Week celebrations every year in May. Also, it has been creating better infrastructure for bicyclists due to so many more people bicycling within the past few years. It is transforming itself into a truly world-leading bicycle city.

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In another case of Critical Mass road rage, the driver of a white SUV received nothing but a citation after ramming a cyclist during Washington, D.C.’s ride last night, according to witness accounts.

After the hit-and-run, bicyclists took off after the SUV, which tried to escape on the wrong side of the road. Police arrived shortly, and instead of arresting the driver, detained a cyclist who aggressively pursued the vehicle.

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The police officer who was infamously caught on camera tackling a bicyclist in New York City was fired on February 10th, seven months after the original incident.

As we reported here on Planetsave, former officer Patrick Pogan, 23, has been arraigned under charges of falsifying records. We’ve now learned that he has plead not guilty to the charges in Manhattan court and could face up to 4 years in prison if convicted.

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The police officer who seemingly randomly picked a bicyclist out of a critical mass crowd to tackle has been indicted for falsifying records and could also soon be charged with misdemeanor assault. The YouTube video [below], which went viral soon after the incident, was instrumental in the indictment.

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Last week, a tourist in NYC videotaped a police office body slamming a cyclist during Critical Mass, the monthly event where bicyclists take over city streets.  On Friday, violence also erupted during Critical Mass in Seattle between a driver and bikers, after riders practiced “corking,” in which they block cars while the mass of cyclists pass by.

Bicing — Great (3rd Generation) Bicycle Sharing Program

Bicycle sharing programs started out as simple systems in which bikes were painted a certain color and then made available for use for free by anyone in the community, to be picked up or dropped off at undetermined places. The problem with these systems, naturally, was that there was no accountability or security and the bikes would eventually disappear.

In recent years, some more sophisticated programs have been developed in various European countries. One type of more sophisticated program requires that a cash deposit be made to borrow a locked bike and then once the bike is returned the deposit is returned. More sophisticated than this, a few newer programs (such as Bicing) were recently launched in which a customer must become a member of the program to borrow a bike and then the person is able to unlock bikes with their membership card through a fairly sophisticated computer system (similar to carsharing programs such as Zipcar and Flexcar).

Barcelona’s system is one of the most successful to date. It is interesting because it is only open to Barcelonians — not tourists. They can pay a yearly fee of 30 Euros and then get a bike for free for half an hour anytime. If they want it for more than half an hour, they pay 30 cents per every extra 30 minutes. They can return bikes to any of the hundreds of bike parking “stations” around the city. The system started with 100 stations and 1,500 bikes. The system blew-up, was hugely popular, and today it consists of 6,000 bikes and 375 stations.

The system cut into the transportation infrastructure for cars a little bit, and generated some controversy at the beginning, but it seems that people have come to realise more and more the benefits of bicycle transportation for their city. Similar to Bogota, Barcelona has transformed its city into a more bicycle and pedestrian focused place, and as a result “the number of cars coming into Barcelona (has been reduced) by 15 percent.”

Enjoy the photos and YouTube video of this great bike sharing program below!

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Image Credit 1: synes via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Paco CT via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: Altamar via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: frodrig via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 5: almogaver via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 6: JesuSarmiento via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 7: Maufdi via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Beautiful Places to Bicycle

Barcelona is beautiful, and that makes bicycling there that much better. Rather than close yourself in a car, tram, or bus, you can enjoy the beauty and atmosphere of Barcelona better on a bike.

Image Credit 1: ras263 via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: JorgeMiente.es via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: _Asane_ via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: lcrf via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 5: Juan Carlos! via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 6: Plug 1 via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 7: Tuquetu via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 8: JaulaDeArdilla via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bikin’ in the Rain, Kids on Bikes, & Men in Suits

Image Credit 1: vitelone via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: vitelone via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: vitelone via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: vitelone via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Folding Bikes

Easy to travel with or bring to work, these folding bikes are very popular in Barcelona. (There’s one on page nine, too.) The photographer for the first picture here writes: “Barcelona seems to be something of a magnet for Bromptons and other types of folding bikes. It recently hosted an event specifically for Bromptons.” A few artistic pictures of these super utilitarian bikes for all of us to enjoy:

Image Credit 1: identity chris is via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Brújulo via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: . SantiMB . via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: Juan Carlos! via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Big Bike Taxis

Image Credit 1: uayebt via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: uayebt via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 3: jose_gonzalvo via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 4: james. via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Balloons on Bikes

Image Credit 1: karuleta* via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Naked Bicyclists

Mix Spain and bicycles and you get a few naked people! What a free look this picture has.

Image Credit 1: sheenabizarre via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Moving or Shipping Bikes & Critical Mass Bike Rides

Image Credit 1: Liz Castro via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: funkyfabriz via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Flowers or Pac-Man in the Bikes Lanes?

At first, I thought these were tulips. Then, I realized (partly by seeing the title of the second one) that it is actually a tribute to pac-man! Interesting bike lane art.

Hope you enjoyed the photo tours of Basel (Switzerland), Bogota (Columbia), and Barcelona (Spain). To keep yourself updated on the next seven photo tours, keep your eye on EcoWorldly or even subscribe to its feed or email list. Have something extra to add? Comment below!

Image Credit 1: Ibán via flickr under a Creative Commons license
Image Credit 2: Ibán via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Bicycling as a sport, whether it is for participants or spectators, has always held a special place in the hearts of Italians. Professional bike races, including Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France are followed passionately by the Italian people. This mass interest in cycling as sport helps to make Italians among the world’s most knowledgeable consumers of bicycles. Everything you have ever heard about bicycling in Italy is true. The weather, roads and cities are all perfectly suited for bike touring. Each of bicycling and walking itineraries throughout Italy is carefully crafted to blend the best that our country has to offer by taking the active traveler off the beaten track.

A growing number of Italian citizens look today at alternative mobility as the solution to a stressful way of life.

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