Priority for bicycles: Torrent Llibre street, Cardedeu’s first bicycle street
This executive project embodies a proposal born from the Study of 30 km/h zones in Cardedeu, prepared by VAIC Mobility for the Barcelona Provincial Council in 2018: the transformation of Torrent Llibre street into a bicycle street, a type of traffic calming that reverses the traditional road hierarchy and grants priority of circulation to bicycles and personal mobility vehicles over cars in both directions of travel.
How a bicycle street with passing places works
The bicycle street is an urban design solution that allows for two-way bicycle traffic on a single-platform street without needing to widen the road section. The key mechanism is the passing places, located approximately every 40 meters along the route. These spaces serve a dual function:
- Speed moderation: by forcing vehicles to modify their trajectory at each passing place, it physically prevents them from circulating at more than 30 km/h, without the need for conventional speed bumps.
- Intersection management: they create waiting areas where motorized vehicles yield to bicycles traveling in the opposite direction, unequivocally establishing the hierarchy of priorities.
Added to this solution of pull-outs is a new red asphalt pavement that visually reinforces the change in priorities and alerts drivers from the street entrance that they are in an area where bicycles have preference.
A project executed in 2023
The project was executed in February 2023, turning Torrent Llibre street into a concrete and replicable example of how traffic calming and the promotion of active mobility can transform a residential street with a precise, economical, and high-visual-impact intervention.
