A father of two calmly taking his children to school has been subject to harassment by authorities in the Spanish City of Pozuelo de Alarcón, reports Mobility Consultant, Mikael Colville-Andersen 

In a blog post on his website,  www.copenhagenize.com, he tells a rather disturbing story: 

"Last week, Oliver dropped off his girls - aged 2 and 5 - and, when he came out of the school, two plainclothes policemen were waiting for him in an unmarked police car. Seriously. Waiting for him. They were in an aggressive mood and stated that his bicycle was not certified to carry two children.

He started a blog to write about it - Pozuelo con Pedales - Pedaling Pozuelo, referring to the town that Oliver lives in - Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The police demanded to see his "ficha tecnica" or vehicle registration, which is of course ridiculous - it's a BICYCLE. 

Oliver was furious and when he started complaining about the treatment, they police started harrassing him about riding a section of the route to school on the sidewalk - about 200 m in total. It is technically illegal to do so, but Oliver had decided that committing a minor traffic offence was better than taking chances on a stretch with inadequate infrastructure for cyclists and lack of police enforcement of the 40 km/h speed limit, as well as enforcing the 1.5 m law in Spain. 

In fact, the police had previously told him to take the sidewalk one day after picking up the girls from school. So this wasn't the first run-in with the local police. They have been keeping an eye on him and photographing his movements. How bizarre is that?

The story ends - well not really ends - with the police taking his personal data and telling him that they would prepare a report for the City Council and another for Social Services - claiming him to be an irresponsible father "

Spain has been undergoing quite a bicycle revolution in recent years. Cities like Seville have managed to increase bicycle modal share dramatically, from 0.5% to nearly 6% in a matter of years. 

In neighbouring Portugal, over 9000 children received bicycle books as Christmas presents under the initiative of Almada City Council. In times when cities want to be seen as bicycle friendly, it's saddening to see authorities take such a backwards approach.

Copenhagenize is calling upon the bicycle community to contact the  City of Pozuelo de Alarcón by visiting their website or for Spanish speakers to contact the Mayor's office
 

About the Source

Copenhagenize Consulting is an international consultancy based in Copenhagen specialising in bicycle planning, marketing and communications. They are an associate member of ECF.