BarcelonaFor years, the image of people going to work by bicycle was an exception, in our house. An image that was related to northern Europe. But it’s been years since cycling to work has become quite normal and the pandemic has boosted this trend. Barcelona, in fact, is experiencing a revolution of women on wheels. In the Catalan capital, 65% of people who go to work by bicycle are women, a fact that places it at the top of the world ranking in this aspect, above places such as London, New York, Paris or Berlin. The number of women who cycle to work has grown by 81% in Barcelona compared to pre-pandemic data, an increase that has not been seen anywhere else. In general, in all large cities, more and more women choose to cycle, but nowhere more than in Barcelona, according to the report Year in Sport from the Strava app.
Every year the routes platform founded and coordinated by the Swede Michael Horvath uses the data it has to explain how the way of moving around the world is changing. “More and more women are registered. The data we have on Strava shows a significant fact. If cities like Barcelona invest in having more bike lanes and fewer cars, more women take up cycling,” explains Horvath to ARA. Its platform has already exceeded 100 million users, who share routes and results with people from all over the world when they do sports or simply commute, whether by bike or running. To carry out this study, Strava analyzes more than 1.8 billion activities to highlight trends in mobility and sports activities. The platform has already started working with councils such as that of Paris to be able to design the urban fabric, detecting areas with a strong trend of movement by bicycle where there are no cycle lanes, for example. “The data from Barcelona seemed significant to us. In addition to the pandemic, there is the issue of cycle lanes. If we have more, more women feel safer than if they were driving between cars”, defends Horvath.
Mallorca, destination for cyclists
Strava data has also made it possible to detail the boom in sports tourism. In this case, the Balearic Islands have become the favorite region of tourists who want to go cycling. According to this yearbook, 3.5% of tourists who come to Spain do so to do sport, especially from the United Kingdom and France. And the region chosen by cyclists over the others is the Balearic Islands, ahead of Vlaandaren (Belgium) and Trentino Alto-Adige, in Italy. On the other hand, if it comes to running, the most chosen destination is the Canary Islands, specifically Gran Canaria. According to Strava data, 36% of the sports activities that have been registered in this year 2022 in the Balearic Islands correspond to foreign people who do not live there. In other words, cyclists and runners who spend a few days discovering the trails, especially in Mallorca. Analyzing the data by sections, one stands out above the others: the Albir lighthouse route, in Alicante, which has recorded the most interactions between foreign tourists.
The year 2022 has generally seen a huge increase in sports activities. According to many experts, the pandemic has had a lot to do with it, as thousands of people have felt the desire to bet on outdoor practices after months locked at home. Thus, Spain is one of the countries in the world where the number of marathon runners has grown the most, as well as the number of people who go to the mountains to practice hiking. In the case of marathons, in areas such as Catalonia, the number of people who do them has doubled in 24 months. In races of trail in the mountains, the number also continues to rise. Now, in the Strava report, it was surprising to see how the sport that adds the most users and has grown the most both in Catalonia and in the State as a whole is alpine skiing, with an increase of 383% compared to the year before the pandemic. Just at a time when there is a strong debate about the cost of ski slopes to need artificial snow, the slopes have been filled more than ever.
