One of Jaume Collboni's promises when he became mayor of Barcelona was the “reassessment” of those urban planning and mobility projects that have caused discomfort in some groups. The Via Augusta bike lane, built in the heat of the electoral campaign, became a symbol of this and – promised is debt – will now undergo the corresponding analysis.
Barcelona City Council has put out to tender this week a minor contract corresponding to the technical advisory service for the evaluation of the operation of the Via Augusta. "The objective is to study the operation of the bike lane and see how it impacts its environment," say municipal sources. By environment we broadly understand the affectation it can have on mobility from Diagonal to almost Ronda de Dalt and from the Sarrià neighborhood to Gràcia.
The consulting company that ends up assuming the audit must study the effects on mobility of the entry into operation of the new cycle path in the section between Laforja street and Hort de la Vila, the last one pending to be opened. Since the start of the works, it has provoked the anger of the Vallès drivers who enter and leave Barcelona through the Vallvidrera tunnels, having lost a lane for car traffic. The RACC also showed its discomfort a few days ago.
The study will reflect automatic and manual counts of the passage of vehicles, as well as an evaluation of the flows and density of motorized traffic and the bike lane. Pollutant emissions will also be estimated and the effects on school mobility in the area and the operation of the bus service will be analyzed, with special attention to stops, a probable point of conflict, since to get on and off the bus you have to cross the bike lane.
The type of bike lane audit commissioned "cannot be done directly by the City Council as it does not have the necessary material and human resources to carry it out", they justify from the Mobility services department in the report on the necessity of the contract. The maximum cost will be 14,915 euros, just below the 15,000 euro limit that these types of more agile awards have, since if they exceed that amount the procedure would be much longer. Even so, the only award criteria for those who apply will be the best economic offer, with which the cost for the City Council will foreseeably end up being somewhat lower.
The field work will last a maximum of three months and the results of the evaluation are expected by the end of November. The report to be prepared will be decisive in making a decision on the future of the Via Augusta bike lane, which was the proposal with the most votes in the participatory budgets of the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district during the previous term. Municipal sources point out that "the order is made to have the maximum information on this infrastructure in order to assess the options that arise."
Based on their contributions, "the adjustments and nuances" referred to by the City Council's chief engineer, Oriol Altisench, a few weeks ago, when he made it clear in his first speech in office that the works were not going to stop, will be introduced. nor was the mobility transformation course going to be substantially altered towards a city in which bicycles have a segregated and safe infrastructure.
It is expected that the entire bike path will be opened in the coming weeks, including the remaining section from Ganduxer to Dolors Monserdà, after Paseo de la Bonanova, apparently finished.
The date of entry into service is still uncertain, although the initial forecast that had been given was to remove the construction fences in the middle of the month. Since this was not the case, the Bici Augusta platform carried out a protest action a few days ago, removing the obstacles and demonstrating that it is now possible to circulate through the exclusive infrastructure for bikes and scooters from end to end of Via Augusta. If the bus has any complaint, it is that it is excessively narrow and insecure in some parts.
