After being secluded at home for over a week thanks to the swine flu, I've rediscovered the pleasure of cycling. It's true that Madrid isn't the best of cities to go by bike, nor is it the best prepared for it either, but I still enjoy using my bike to go everywhere. Even though it can be quite stressful to cycle through the crowded streets full of impatient drivers, I feel that slowly but surely the bicycles are conquering Spain's capital.
When I came back from Berlin, one of the things I missed most was my bike, crappy though it was (I never had it stolen, even though I once forgot to lock it). In the successive years I've noticed a serious increase in the number of bikes that circulate through Madrid. That and the discovery of a cycling lane finally separated from the road to get to uni made me buy a decent bike to use in my everyday trips.
It's true that there is still a long way to go to make Madrid a safe city to cycle. Not only do we need more cycling lanes inside the centre itself, but it is also necessary to educate the car drivers to make them conscious of the new users of the road. This latter necessity will be the hardest to achieve since, sadly, the cars still think they are the only ones entitled to the use of the streets. Hopefully, in a few years, Madrid will have caught up with the other European capitals as regards the use of bikes and its citizens will feel safe while making the world an environmentally friendlier place.
