Barcelona

Despite a slip downwards in this year’s ranking, the Catalonian capital continues to serve as a model of urban mobility innovation. An expanding network and improved bike share scheme coupled with a willingness to experiment through pilot projects cements Barcelona into the top 20 for an eighth year in a row.

The recent updated Urban Mobility Plan strives to more than double their cycling network up to 308 km by the end of the year, up from 116 km in 2015. With this increase, Barcelona’s continually expanding network aims to reach the point where 89% of all residents live within 300 metres of a bike lane. The very fact that the city is thinking in these terms says a lot about how the bicycle is seen as a legitimate mode of transportation in Barcelona. And Bicing, the city’s pioneering bikeshare scheme, continues to expand, upgrade, and innovate with new sturdier and more efficient bikes.

Perhaps the most innovative traffic calming project in the last decade, the Superilla program (“Super Blocks”) has been implemented, measured, and tweaked to continually foster public life in the neighbourhood of El Poblenou. Learning from this innovative project, the city is looking to implement five Superillas by the end of the year.