Barcelona’s long-running debate over how people get in, out and around the city sharpened on 8/9/2025, as City Hall and the Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya (RACC) publicly agreed on the need for better metropolitan connectivity, yet clashed over bike lanes and the superblock model.
Speaking at a ‘Barcelona i Mobilitat’ dialogue hosted by Foment del Treball, first deputy mayor Laia Bonet and RACC president Josep (Jaume) Mateu converged on a familiar priority: improving daily commuter flows between Barcelona and its surrounding municipalities, with more park-and-ride hubs and stronger intercity links.
The flashpoints were clear. RACC cited its latest cycling barometer to argue that segregated bike lanes occupy a sizeable share of road space relative to current usage, an average 16% of carriageway across studied points for about 7% of users, fuelling its call to rebalance designs and improve enforcement. City Hall, by contrast, defends the cycling network as a pillar of road safety and modal shift.
On superblocks, RACC warned of spill-over traffic on adjacent streets and practical headaches around loading/unloading. The council maintains that ‘pacified’ streets are reshaping public space, with further measures planned under the 2025–2030 Urban Mobility Plan, which targets 85% of trips by walking, cycling or public transport and foresees more traffic-calmed corridors.
The wider context matters: persistent disruption on the Rodalies rail network has nudged officials towards buses and park-and-ride as quicker relief, with Barcelona now openly aiming to double intercity-bus entries to roughly 400,000 people per day in the coming years. That strategy, championed by Bonet at the same forum, underscores why ‘connection mobility’, the flows into and out of Barcelona has become the political battleground.
Why it matters: Barcelona is trying to square climate, safety and liveability goals with the reality that a large share of peak-hour traffic starts outside city limits. The settlement—how much space to give bikes, how fast to roll out superblocks, how to keep freight and deliveries moving—will shape the city’s streets for the next decade. Meanwhile, cycling has grown 17% year-on-year, strengthening City Hall’s hand even as the RACC numbers fuel sceptics.
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Source: ElNacional.cat
