Barcelona, already a great place to ride a bike, has responded to the COVID 19 crisis by transforming street space to create even more, better bike lanes.
The line marking workers have been out in force to mark out new routes and widen existing busy bike lanes.
While the city has many good links and connections for bikes across the city, they were on the narrow side.
Now, after swiping space from cars and sharing with bus lanes, the city has some much more comfortable routes.
Like most progressive cities, it realises that as the economy returns to health over time, mobility will be very different with public transport restricted.
This means much more walking and riding in a city where many people get around on foot and on bike.
The aim of the plan is to prevent new infections and, at the same time, avoid a transition from public transport to private vehicles.
It is spending almost $8M on bike pedestrian and public transport changes.
Twelve kilometres of street will be reallocated for pedestrian use on Avinguda Diagonal, Gran Via, Via Laietana and the streets of Consell de Cent, Rocafort and Girona.
And 21 kilometres of bike lanes will appear on 10 roads in the city to encourage more cycling by replacing a vehicle lane will be with a bicycle lane, or a lane shared by bikes and buses.
![](https://bicyclenetwork.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Shared-bike-and-bus-route-Barcelona.png)