Seville

Seville in southern Spain would certainly not come to our mind as playing in the category of Copenhagen and the like, the famous examples of modern, efficient cities. Sure, Seville is known for its large historic center, but for its public transport, its public spaces, for cycling and active mobility? Andalusia has a reputation as being poor and plagued by the “typical” Southern European problems: corruption, inefficient administration, lack of funding and so own. And cycling in a city where temperatures frequently reach 40°C? Moreover, Seville is not small: the city itself has almost 700 000 inhabitants, and the metropolitan area more than 1,5 million. But let’s see for ourself, and be surprised how a city can develop great public spaces and safe infrastructure for its citizens even with little investment.

For the left picture, taken near the train station, note three good aspects of the street design:

• the bike lane starts directly in front of the train station and arrives at the city center without interruption (not visible in the picture, but trust me),
• the bike lane permits bicycle traffic in both directions even though the street is one-way for cars,
• at the intersection, the bike lane continues with priority over the cars and speed bumps before the bike lane help to make this priority respected.

The picture on the right is also interesting:

• It shows a zero-cost method to construct a bike lane where cyclists are protected from fast traffic: the parked cars form the protection for free.
• The bike lane being behind the parked cars also protects against car drivers parking in second row on the bike lane.
  (This street layout is however problematic near intersections due to low visibility, and should therefore be chosen only where there are no or few intersections. But here it works well.)
• The bike lane is sufficiently wide to avoid dooring accidents (i.e., collisions with car doors as passengers open them without paying attention to the traffic).
• Bike lanes in all the city are green to make them clearly recognizable.
• The bike lane is separate from the side walk to avoid conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians.
• The sidewalk is free of obstructions and shaded by trees (important to make walking bearable in the strong Spanish sun).

These two pictures are also important, showing that bike lanes in Siviglia are always constructed with some form of protection to stop car drivers from illegally invading them. The left picture is on the ring road around the historic center, where the bike lane was clearly added rather recently. The right picture is on a new road near the university campus: a bike lane to this important destination was created immediately, and with solid protection by stone bollards. Both examples appear to be rather low-cost implementations. Note also that on neither of the two streets parking of cars is permitted. Finally note that traffic lights take into account also cyclists. What you can’t see in the picture: the ring road bike lane wraps once around the entire historic center, without interruptions or changing sides, and it connects without gaps to the radial bike lanes, e.g., to the university campus.

And people use those bike lanes. At almost 40°C in the summer, I see people on electric bikes (Lime), bikes of the city’s bike rental system, private electric scooters, and also some non-electric bikes. I went around by Lime e-bike all the week, and biking in Seville felt safe. Way safer than in Italy.

Let’s conclude with some picture showing how Seville creates great public space for its citizens. In the picture on the left we see Metropol Parasol in Plaza de la Encarnación. This was clearly not cheap, but has become an iconic attraction of the city – and has a crucial function: by providing shade it makes the summer sun bearable so that the square is attractive all day. Note also that the square is pedestrianized, but crossed by a street. Here we observe another important element: cars can cross the pedestrian space, instead of pedestrians having to cross a car street. Bollards prevent cars from invading pedestrian space. It is clear that pedestrians have priority here, yet the center remains accessible by car for residents and taxis.

On the right, we see a typical small square in the historic center. I draw your attention to three points:

• There are no parked cars, even though residents in cars can pass on the side of the square.
• There is a bike rental station for quick mobility.
• There are a playground, trees for shade, and benches, making the square attractive for the residents.

And those squares do get full: look at the middle picture taken on a similar square in the evening. Full of people eating outside, walking, children in playgrounds. We can enjoy life if do not permit cars to invade all our public spaces!

Seville is a great example how cities can become more livable without spending huge amounts of money and without radical rebuilding:

• Build some cheap bike lanes. Make them always protected. Make sure they don’t have gaps, connect all important points (e.g., train station – historic center – university campus), and have a clear and simple layout.
• Create attractive pedestrian spaces.
• Let residents drive their cars to their homes, but don’t let them invade public space for parking.

It’s neither difficult nor costly to create a livable city.