Cyclocat. Safe cycling in Catalonia

CycloCat is a non-profit organization that classifies and documents the roads that are safe to move around Catalonia by bicycle. All the work done by the Sherpas is reviewed under unified criteria and the result of the work can be consulted free of charge on the website www.cyclocat.cat.

On this website there is an interactive map that allows you to calculate personalized routes thanks to a self-developed program called Guineu

The network documented by CycloCat follows the criteria of “minimum unevenness, maximum security” to unite the maximum population. Currently the network covers 95% of the population of Catalonia.

CycloCat represents bicycle users at an interurban level before public institutions and claims their rights.

How was the Cyclocat association born?

It is born from the previous personal experience of the founders knowing the interurban cycling networks of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Italy. We saw that sometimes it was not necessary to carry out major cycling infrastructure works, but simply to document and make the safest itineraries known to cyclists.

How did you find out about TwoNav?

TwoNav is a relevant brand in the cycling GPS sector, especially for users looking for good features. It is inevitable to find GPS TwoNav among colleagues, on the web, in stores, etc…

How do you classify the different routes?

The CycloCat network is made up of sections and the user selects the sections through which he wants to go by clicking on the map. You can also click a start point and an end point and let the Guineu software calculate the shortest path automatically. The sections have different colors -similar to ski slopes-.

Green: Completely segregated from motor vehicles. negligible unevenness.

Blue: Reduced interaction with motor vehicles (zones 30, farm roads). smooth unevenness

Red: Interaction with intense motor vehicles. high unevenness

Black: Very intense interaction with motor vehicles. Very high slope.

Yellow: interaction with motor vehicles like the color blue. Very high slope.

Also the state of the road goes from more good to worse as the level increases, therefore the technical demands of the user also increase.

What is the job of the Sherpas?

The Sherpas are people who live throughout the territory of Catalonia and who know the part of the territory where they live very well. They and they have to find the route with less unevenness and more security. Once defined, it is necessary to classify the level of each of the sections that compose it or add the necessary variants to connect more population. They are also in charge of periodically reviewing the roads and notifying of incidents or improvements.

How does Land help you?

Land helps us a lot! In fact, it is the main program that we Sherpas use to edit the sections of the CycloCat network. Once we have the tracks of the very clean sections it is much easier for us to put them in the database.

New proposals for the future from Cyclocat?

Now that we have the interactive map and Guineu we are working on improving the procedures for updating the sections of the map. There are a lot of changes lately, we have more and more Sherpas and we don’t have enough time to update the map. We would also like to make an app with geolocation or that the map could be easily consulted from the mobile.