A Sostre Cívic we incorporate a fleet of 15 bicycles at the reach of 5 projects in coexistence to promote sustainable mobility.

This pilot initiative is part of an inter-cooperation project promoted with the organizations Biciclot, Som Connexió, Som Mobilitat and Granollers Pedala.

A Sostre Cívic we don't just share housing, now we also share bikes! With the aim of offering a more shared service to our co-operative housing projects, we have incorporated fifteen electric bikes (three of them cargo bikes) to five of our co-living projects: La Balma, Princesa49, Cirerers (Barcelona), Clau Mestra (Sant Cugat) and La Xicoira (Olesa de Montserrat).

The bicycles have been distributed among the different projects according to the criteria obtained in the previous mobility studies, which have identified the context and conditions of each project (location and urban context, trade and facilities, existing slopes and existing mobility services), the daily mobility dynamics of each community (dispersion of movements according to work, consumption, care and leisure) and the monthly economic cost of current mobility.

So, the distribution has been adapted as follows (the two remaining bikes are awaiting allocation):

• Clau Mestra: 2 bikes and 1 cargo
• La Balma: 2 bikes and 1 cargo
• Cirerers: 3 bikes and 1 cargo
• Princesa49: 1 bike
• La Xicoira: 2 bikes

100% sustainable: bicycles recovered thanks to Biciclot

This pilot initiative is part of an inter-cooperation project promoted with the entities Biciclot, Som Connexió, Som Mobilitat and Granollers Pedala; and it was thanks to the Project Singulars "New infrastructures and services for the construction of sustainable communities", financed by the Generalitat de Catalunya. 

Specifically, the bicycles have been provided by bike (working cooperative that offers services and training related to the bicycle as an ecological, economical, healthy means of transport and for sustainable mobility) and these are bicycles that have been rescued from their state of abandonment to be 80% reused, painted and assembled entirely by hand in the cooperative's workshop located in Poblenou. Precisely, one of the lines of work of this entity is the recovery of bicycles and putting them back into circulation with the aim of raising awareness about reuse and recycling.

As for the own fleet of bicycles Sostre Cívic, the fact that they are self-reproducing means that they are easier to adapt to the needs of each housing project, where they must be used. At the same time it also means that you can unify the components standards, in order to improve their maintenance and repair.

How will the bikes be managed?

Among the measures of the already mentioned Singulars Project, the spaces already existing in the different projects have also been studied to be able to incorporate parking adapted to each building. As a result, the placement of anchorages or parking boxes has been implemented depending on the needs of each building.

Each project has total autonomy in the internal management of the use of their bicycles: you can decide what the usage regime will be, the reservation system, the cleaning cycle, etc. In terms of maintenance, projects can choose whether to contract the service directly with Biciclot or self-manage it internally. Bicycles are included in the building's own insurance.

A commitment to sustainable and collective mobility

A Sostre Cívic we believe that the future of mobility lies in the promotion of shared bicycles and electric cars, both as a direct response to environmental challenges and to create fairer, more accessible and healthier communities.

"We are more used to organizing and cooperating in areas such as consumption and housing, but, on the other hand, mobility has become a very individual choice and has rarely been addressed collectively. Although we use public transport, this does not involve an organization with other people —says Benjamín Aguilar, member of the Governing Council de Sostre Cívic— Mobility can also be tackled collectively with services and instruments that we can organize together".

MEET THE MEMBERS:
interview to Benjamí Aguilar
"We believe that mobility must be incorporated as another axis of the projects of Sostre Cívic. "

Read the full interview

So, from 2023 we began to carry out several specific actions with the aim of promoting the bicycle and to promote more sustainable mobility in cooperative housing projects: training, mobility studies, electric vehicles, promotion of transport public... As he explains Benjamí Aguilar in his interview, "we want to incorporate a block of sessions that is about mobility so that each group can consider how they want to approach it and can decide if they want to have some shared services".