Thanks to "A Contramano", a Spanish member organization of ECF, the Seville City Center was declared as a 30km/h area creating the largest low-speed traffic area of Spain. "A Contramano" and the Seville City Council has been working hard to improve the conditions for cycling and walking in Seville for many years and finally their effort is acknowledged.

On the 22^nd of September, during the car free day, the City Council announced the implementation of most of the measures that the ECF member organization requested:

• The entire Seville City Center will be signposted (vertical and horizontally) as 30km/h and 20km/h zone on some specific street.
• All 30km/h streets are cycle streets with priority for cyclists.
• All 20km/h streets (Seville classical narrow streets) will be signposted giving priority to cyclists and pedestrians.
• Improving the signalization to become more cycle friendly.

"All these measures are part of the proposal of "A Contramano" to the Seville City Council" - Juan Carlos Cabrera, Responsible of Mobility of the Seville City Council declared. This is a clear message that advocacy works and when cyclists work together, we achieve our goals.

Seville has one of the largest city centers of Europe with approximately 4km2 and a population of over 50,000 inhabitants. The peculiar characteristics of the center: narrow streets, historical patrimony makes Seville a perfect place to move by feet and bike. Thousands of Sevillanos cycle and walk to work, to school or to do groceries every day.

A Contramano´s proposal can be downloaded here (Spanish)

About the successful experience of cycling in Seville you can find more information here (English)

In numbers:

• Population of Seville: 700,000
• Population of the Metropolitan Area: 1.2millions
• Cycling modal share: 8.9% in 2015 (mechanized trips)
• Cycle path network: 170km
• Bike share schemes: SEVici (2.650 bikes, 265 stations) and Bus+Bici (200 bikes)

You can read more about ECF's work on traffic calming here

Ricardo Marques is Vice-President of ´A Contramano´ and University professor and researcher.