The Euro Mobility Festival & how mobility cycling is recruiting new sports and leisure cyclists

The countdown to Spain’s third Euro Mobility Festival is on. CIN delves into the growth of this sister show to Sea Otter Europe, which is tapping into Spain’s burgeoning ‘mobility cycling’ market and helping bring new customers to the table…

Think cycling as mobility and there’s a fair chance that you don’t think about southern Europe. Curiously hewn from the same rock as the altogether wetter UK, the sport and leisure side of cycling tend to be the focus in Spain, Italy, Portugal, et al. Traditionally.

There’s plenty of nuance that upsets that sweeping generalisation. Barcelona is one such outlier, having invested millions in creating what it calls a “coherent, connected and complete” cycling infrastructure network, with an Urban Mobility Plan committing a sizeable influx of cycling infrastructure for that city’s residents and visitors. The city reportedly has the EU’s highest density of cars with all the noise and air pollution that comes with it (source: The Guardian) but recent years have seen it grow with more than 270km of cycle lanes, introduce infrastructure such as cycle traffic lights and boost pedestrianised areas to combat those issues.