The mayoress of Barcelona and Barcelona en Comú candidate for re-election, Ada Colau, offers to set up a free annual Bicing subscription designed for young people between 16 and 20 years of age. With this measure, which seeks to attract some 113,000 potential users and will cost 5.7 million euros for the entire coming term, the aim is to "promote and retain the use of bicycles", according to party sources.
From the formation they indicate that this measure is justified in that "Barcelona is the capital where the car is least used to go to work", based on a recent study. Likewise, with this proposal we want to achieve that the use of combustion transport decreases even more. "We are asking the public to use the car less, therefore, we must offer alternatives," remarked the applicant.
The mayor also points out the good data on the use of Bicing, which has also favored the approach of this subscription. Since 2015, the number of users has increased by 45%, reaching 138,000 users. According to Colau, this growth is due to measures taken during his mandate, such as the expansion of the network of bike lanes, the number of bicycles and the extension throughout practically the entire city. "Bicing is a good introduction to the use of the bicycle and for this reason we believe that the service must continue to be promoted among young people", explains the current mayoress.
Regarding the age group chosen, this is mainly due to other data indicating that more than half of young people use public transport to go to work or study, and also to a considerable drop over the last decade in the number of young people who have a driver's license.
