La accesibilidad de los grandes estadios

 Así como el anterior post hacía referencia a descripciones sobre las diversas maneras que tenían los espectadores y aficionados de acceder a la plaza de toros. En este artículo abordaré las necesidades de accesibilidad y movilidad que tienen los lugares que alojan eventos deportivos a los que acuden grandes flujos de personas como por ejemplo los grandes estadios de fútbol.

Creative Commons by Heath Alseike

Movilidad de grandes grupos. Descripción de los accesos a una plaza de toros

La movilidad en grupos de personas accediendo a los edificios que acogen importantes eventos capaces de congregar a miles de personas no es patrimonio de nuestra modernidad. Tenemos muchas referencias históricas sobre este tipo de movimientos de masas desde la antiguedad, empezando por el circo romano hasta llegar a los actuales estadios donde se practican deportes que atraen a miles de personas. 

En esta ocasión me parece oportuno destacar dos textos escritos en el siglo XIX que relatan, a su manera, la movilidad que generaban las personas que se agrupaban en multitud, aún siendo de distinta procedencia social y geográfica, hacia su lugar de encuentro, en este caso una plaza de toros; uno de los mayores eventos populares que había en la España de finales del siglo XIX. Al leer estos textos resulta interesante hacer un ejercicio de extrapolación a nuestros días con los aficionados que acuden a los estadios de futbol para disfrutar/padecer de su amado equipo y buscar las similitudes y diferencias que cada uno pueda encontrar.

Plaza de toros de Madrid
 Fuente: Imagenes del viejo Madrid

Bici eléctrica

Este verano en Alemania se me presentó una oportunidad que no dejé escapar; me plantearon la posibilidad de usar una bici eléctrica. Y efectivamente, aproveché la ocasión y acepté la propuesta muy agradecido.

El concepto de bicicleta eléctrica se basa en la ayuda en el pedaleo, es decir, el motor eléctrico funciona cuando se pedalea, pero deja de hacerlo cuando no se pedalea, pues estamos sobre una bicicleta no sobre un ciclomotor. En éste último no hay que pedalear para que funcione y el motor puede alcanzar velocidades superiores a los 25 kilómetros por hora. Otra característica de esta bicicleta eléctrica se centra en las prestaciones del motor eléctrico respecto a la velocidad, de manera que desde que empezamos a movernos hasta que llegamos a los 20 kilómetros por hora el motor ofrece las máximas prestaciones al usuario; mientras que a partir de esa velocidad sus prestaciones se van reduciendo hasta desaparecer cuando se alcanza los 25 kilómetros por hora, que el motor deja de ayudar disminuyendo la fuerza que aplica.

¿Hacia qué modelo urbano nos dirigimos: la ciudad mundial o las ciudades-mundo?

Aeropuerto Charles de Gaulle.
Este tipo de infraestructuras resulta fundamental 
para el crecimiento de las metrópolis y la globalización

Estas Navidades he tenido la ocasión de leer el ensayo de Marc Augé: Por una antropología de la movilidad GEDISA (2007) en el que realiza unos planteamientos muy significativos sobre nuestra reciente evolución social y por qué resulta tan complicado comprender lo que nos sucede. Marc Augé lo resume con el concepto de sobremodernidad.

La primera pregunta que nos hacemos es: ¿qué es eso de la sobremodernidad? La sobremodernidad es una idea defendida desde hace años por este autor para referirse a determinadas características que tiene nuestra sociedad posmoderna; sometida a un exceso de causas que hacen muy complejo realizar cualquier tipo de análisis; donde la aceleración de la historia multiplica los acontecimientos y genera una superabundancia de información; las tecnologías producen un cambio en la percepción de nuestro planeta, cada vez es más "pequeño", al que nos aproximamos con constantes cambios de escala al referirnos a los múltiples acontecimientos con los que nos abruman los medios de comunicación; cambios de escala tambien en la forma de desplazarnos; donde se exalta el individualismo como una característica vinculada al éxito y al progreso en nuestra sociedad capitalista.

La universalización frente al particularismo

Sobre la maraña de acontecimientos que produce la sobremodernidad en la que nos movemos los seres humanos, Marc Augé pone su foco de atención en la lucha de dos corrientes ideológicas contrapuestas que compiten desde el siglo pasado por su supremacía dentro de nuestra cultura. Por un lado tenemos la visión universalizadora que recoge la tradición liberal por el crecimiento de bienes y servicios, así como el paulatino desarrollo de los medios de transporte y comunicación, reforzando la globalización y apoyándose en la exaltación del sujeto individual (del individualismo). Esta visión universalizadora también incorpora teorías ideológicas transversales de conciencia ecológica y social que el autor vincula con una idea de planetarización. Nuestro planeta es un cuerpo astrofísico que está en peligro (la Teoría de Gaia sería un ejemplo), al que hay que proteger con unos crecimientos económicos, ambientales y sociales sostenibles.  Por otro lado nos encontramos ante el ímpetu de ideologías que reivindican la identidad territorial y cultural como elementos aglutinadores de comunidades que no desean quedar desdibujadas bajo el peso de la  globalización, de la que deben defenderse o desean modificar. En este segundo grupo de ideologías, por contraposición a las anteriores, existe una clara exaltación del sujeto colectivo frente al individuo.

¿Estamos ante dos modelos ideológicos y urbanos, o tal vez no?

En esta obra Marc Augé también nos describe dos modelos urbanos vinculados con la dualidad ideológica entre la universalización y el particularismo. Bajo el soporte de la globalización existen tendencias urbanas que promueven el desarrollo de una ciudad mundial o de carácter planetario. Una metaciudad sin fronteras en donde el tejido urbano se extiende junto a los ríos y las costas, siguiendo las principales vías de comunicación como si de una extensa red de filamentos se tratara, donde puntualmente se desarrollan extensas megalópolis que funcionan como nodos de comunicación de una red mundial de circulación para las personas, los bienes, los servicios y las informaciones. Una utopía planetaria homogénea tanto en el orden cultural, como económico y lingüístico.

La otra corriente ideológica tiene una visión mucho más fragmentada del modelo urbano: las ciudades mundo, donde la población, que también se concentra en grandes núcleos urbanos, genera desigualdades y confrontaciones, pero son ciudades donde por el contrario pueden anclarse las diferentes identidades culturales. Se trata de ciudades-mundo receptoras de diversas migraciones que crean ecosistemas urbanos complejos, muy diversos  y difíciles de gestionar. Aquí no hay una utopía planetaria sino más bien una utopía territorial y cultural particularmente homogeneizadora en la que cada ciudad-región adopta su idiosincrasia.

Probablemente la realidad que se está configurando sea una combinación de ambos modelos urbanos sobrepuestos, donde hay individuos de éxito que se convierten en baluartes de una globalidad de marcado corte liberal, cuyos principales valores son la desterritorialización y el individualismo. Realmente no tenemos que hacer un gran esfuerzo para imaginarlo, podemos fijarnos en nuestros artistas más famosos, en nuestros deportistas de élite, en los políticos más destacados o en los altos ejecutivos para hacernos una idea del perfil de éxito que genera la ciudad mundial. Y sin embargo, también forman parte de este presente-futuro muchos individuos sometidos a un sedentarismo forzoso por razones económicas o culturales, que quedan segregados de la metacirculación de la ciudad mundial y de su hipermovilidad (aquí me reservo mis dudas en función de la evolución del negocio low-cost en los medios de transporte), ciudadanos distribuidos por los barrios de las grandes metrópolis con reivindicaciones identitarias, territoriales, culturales o religiosas. Actualmente ya podemos observar cómo se consolida esa realidad dual, que se superpone como en un palimpsesto. Finalmente quiero destacar un fragmento de la obra de M. Augé donde expone la lucha y el solape de esta dualidad paradójica:

“Asimismo, la ciudad-mundo y la ciudad mundial parecen estrechamente ligadas la una a la otra, aunque de manera contradictoria: la ciudad mundial representa el ideal y la ideología del sistema de globalización, mientras que en la ciudad-mundo se manifiestan las contradicciones –o, dicho de otro modo, las tensiones históricas- que genera el sistema. Asimismo, la unión de las ciudades-mundo y de la ciudad-mundial provoca la aparición de las zonas vacías y porosas que trata Philippe Vaset, que no son sino el lado oculto de la universalización o, al menos, el lado que ni podemos, ni queremos, ni sabemos ver.”   (pág.39)

Las zonas vacías y porosas a las se refiere en este texto forman parte de lo que el autor denomina los no lugares,  pero explicar este concepto requiere escribir unas cuantas líneas más que me comprometo a desarrollar en otro post.

New York, principal nodo de la red mundial de comunicación
  by Trödel in Creative Commons

Por cierto, si algún lector después de leer este post -por asociación de ideas- se pregunta cómo se llama el planeta-ciudad que aparece en la saga cinematográfica de Star Wars, le ahorraré la búsqueda en google: es CORUSCANT. En algunas novelas de ciencia ficción escritas por Isaac Asimov también se hace mención a un planeta totalmente urbanizado denominado TRANTOR. ¡Menuda pesadilla vivir allí!

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Otros artículos relacionados:

La globalización de la economía y sus consecuencias en la logística y el transporte

La evolución del transporte a la movilidad, una nueva visión

Carpooling el "autostop 2.0" del siglo XXI

Our relations with “the others” in mobility (english version)

Writers - tireless observers of our society - have reflected in their works the different forms of sociability which our mobility provides; examples of which we find in novels like “Murder on the Orient Express” or in films like “Titanic”. In these stories the plot unfolds on a journey, the sociability is reflected in the dialogues of its characters as well as the social segregation which the means of transport itself exerts on its passengers. First and second class in the 19th century, in the 20th century the business and tourist classes and now in the 21st century we have the low-cost class…We are collective animals, we live in society and when we move, we do so through her. We are surrounded by persons - like ourselves –who cause us – knowingly or unawares – different emotional reactions, some of them positive and some of them negative. Travelling causes us a change of rhythm, which we wouldn’t have in different circumstances (with regard to the different rhythms we go through, since we get up until we reach our workplace, changes we will feel still more if we are subject to a fixed work schedule which obliges to use collective transport). Another aspect which might influence us emotionally – more or less according to the character of the person – are the short distances. We know this very well if we go by underground, bus or train and more if those are overcrowded. We all have our personal space which in this case necessarily is invaded, by the body heat or by body odour…if we go by public transport we are not only going from one place to the next, we are also travelling through society perceiving in an anonymous but direct way the multiple forms that the human diversity acquires. Mobility obliges us to share public spaces with strangers and here the concept of unconquerable proximity comes up where glances play their role: Brief glances which avoid visual contact or which cross themselves with those of the other person, sideways glances with which we are prying about what our unknown companion is looking at or reading.

I include in this blog a video about the luxury train Andean Explorer which gets to circulate at the height of 4.000 m. In this recording of a private person, I like especially the fact that it reflects the view of a traveller through such an extraordinary society as is the Andina, but from the bubble of a upscale train.

Source: YouTube (Amesh2009)

George Amar talks in his essay on “Homo Mobilis” about the personal relations in the transport and more concretely about the co-presence and the promiscuity of the users of public transport, which traditionally has been viewed as something depreciative and which is exceeded by individual or restricted transport where one can decide freely if he or she wants to travel alone or in company.

The division between public-collective transport and private-restricted transport is currently diluting itself, as means of transport appear that transcend the traditional ways. Now there is not only the taxi; the shared car; the public cycling or the car-sharing have overcome this segmentation between the private and public; between the individual or restricted and the collective. Those are changes that have been supported by the evolution of the new information technologies and they are changing our perception of accessibility and connectivity between persons. More and more the social networks are converting themselves in socializing structures which amplify our capacity to get to know far away people and places. These new digital contacts are people with whom we share determined spaces and services in places which facilitate our communication. We should not be surprised about the symbiosis between the social applications and the transport services which need Twitter or Facebook. 91 % of the accesses to internet with a mobile phone are carried out to realize socialization actions (source: www.whybrand.com). Sometimes it’s the transport companies themselves which create their own communication channels in order to facilitate this necessity to get to know each other and to generate sufficient confidence to share the journey with “the other”.

In infographies as for example the one published by www.futureofcaresharing.com the current situation about new ways to share transport means is shown (something that already existed but in a much more rudimentary form, via the traditional communication “mouth to ear”). Today we have different forms to share things in internet which we will see by means of some examples of different infographies:

Peer to Peer (P2P):
Where the owners of cars which they want to rent and drivers who are willing to pay a rent to drive them are made to coincide in the market. Examples are: Whipcar, Relay Rides, Wheelz, Getaround…Organizations which promote the use of a shared car appear like Carsharing.com, Bluemove, Carsharing, which establish contact channels by which they reach agreements on a private basis, which allows people to travel together through mutual interest; or another variant which we can find in the nautical field with Findacrew.net. There are also multiple applications to share information of interest for the drivers like Waze, very much used to localize petrol promotions, information about traffic congestions, accidents, the state of the roads…this information is growing and it is updated by the users themselves.

Business to consumer (B2C):
Refers itself to companies owners of vehicles which facilitate the interchange between its members, its employees or its clients, such as the car producers Peugot, SEAT, BMW, renting companies like Hertz…and car-sharing companies like Zipcar, GoGet…

Not for profit (NFP):
These are organizations without purpose of gain which facilitate the interchange of cars to change the habits of mobility, for example City Car Share, I-Go Chicago, Philly Car Share…

In order not to elaborate too widely in this post I would like to touch only very shortly the systems to share information Machine to machine (M2M). Intelligent mobility services based on Cloud-computing architectures for companies whose employees have a high mobility ratio with a large necessity of coordination, security and control, examples are: AddFleet, Bixpe de Abbanza, the Getaround mentioned above can also be included in this group…

Currently, many people not only connect themselves by personal computer or laptop, but the new mobile devices have achieved that internet travels with us and in turn is changing our mobility depending on the degree of our connectivity. When we hold devices in our hands that permit us to keep talking to our acquaintances, that keep us busy and informed, those devises are changing our perception of the time we need for travelling. Internet modifies the paradigm of “the other” while we are moving, because while on the one hand it approaches us to third persons facilitating us contact in a virtual socialization, on the other hand it shuts us up in a bubble which isolates us from the people at close range to us with whom we are sharing the itinerary. Currently we are making a reinterpretation of the public spaces in which we move – both real and virtual. Are we aware of this change?

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Fatal road accidents can be avoided:Principal elements of "Vision Zero"

Autobahnen:The myth of velocity

Autobahnen: the myth of velocity

The German motorways have an acknowledged fame worldwide for different reasons. The BAB (Bundesautobahn) is the greatest and most advanced network of motorways of the European continent – where cars still don’t pay a toll. 50 % of this network has conditional or local speed limits, the rest (aprox. 6.000 km) still don’t have any speed limits although the German government recommends circulation at a maximum of 130 h/km.

In fact, Germany is the only country in the world, where there are still motorway sections without any speed limits. And this is why the myth was born, which has extended itself among many drivers, some of which make pilgrimages to the Teutonic countries only to enjoy driving a high top class car without speed limits. This kind of tourism is quite significant among North Americans and Asiatics. We cannot ignore that for some persons, the emotion to go on full throttle is seductive, they feel a certain liberation and satisfaction when they reach speed limits that provoke high adrenaline levels; and this necessity is what has created the myth.

In this post I will try to de-mystify an idea which is quite common in many persons who either haven’t circulated in Germany or who haven’t informed themselves sufficiently about the characteristics the German traffic has on its Autobahnen.

The history of the Autobahnen goes back to the beginning of the last century – during the decade of the 20s the Germans were considering a change in their existing mobility model for the inter-urban traffic flows, when they passed a great part of the traffic from the railways to the roads. Highway engineers like Robert Otzen or Piero Puricelli have established the first designs and concepts on which the future Autobahnen would be based. The first motorways to connect the country were the A5, the A7 and the A9 from North to South. A curiosity of the German methodology is the sense of the numeration, as the motorways with odd numbers have the direction North-South whereas the motorways with an even number have the direction East to West. The association which headed the development of these infrastructures was called “Autobahnprojekt Hamburg-Frankfurt-Basel” (motorway project Hamburg-Frankfort- Basel) which in 1933 had been dissolved into the “Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Reichsautobahnbaus” (association for the preparation of the motorway construction of the Reich) with the objective to adapt itself to the model of motorway construction proposed by the national socialism: the “Reichsautobahnen” which was headed by the German engineer and military professional Fritz Toth. After World War II, the reconstruction works were initiated and the most modern and reliable motorway network of Europe was created.

Why can we circulate so fast on the German motorways?

The answer can be found mainly in three aspects: in their design, their execution and their maintenance. The pavement of the German motorways is of high quality. Here its thickness has to be distinguished, which can ranch between 50 and 85 cm and which has a special pavement to support the heavy traffic, for which reason it is of a considerable stability and durability. The asphalt is also of a high quality with characteristics that bestow it with a longer durability compared to those used in other countries. The asphalt in these platforms have an excellent drainage especially designed against the erosion caused by rain and ice, which are very common in these latitudes. The pavements use to have an inclination of 2,5 % to one of their exterior sides and so canalize the water to a water basin where it is stored for a better environmental control. The average profile of these motorways has a very flat levelling which generally does not exceed 4 % and its curves have wide angles suitable for high speed.

The German motorways dispose of excellent traffic control systems: television cameras, pillars with electronic displays, radars, motion sensors, meteorologic sensors, intelligent transport systems which can modify the speed at the access roads to the big cities or because of an accident on the road or simply to inform the drivers about the incidents that produce themselves in the network.

Major thermal contrasts and the hard climatology oblige not only to an excellent execution of the construction works using good materials but also to an impeccable maintenance which guarantees the maximum security in extremely adversary conditions of snow, ice and rain. The maintenance of a motorway network with such a density of traffic is very complex and obliges to carry out constant repairs, the trimming of the vegetal elements and the prevention of the consequences of a complicated meteorology with for example such measures as a speedy distribution of salt on the driving surfaces. In Germany more money is invested per km of motorway than in the United States of America.

However, let us demystify…

Whoever goes to Germany thinking that once he has passed the frontier he can accelerate at a maximum will experience a great disappointment, because the German motorways also have speed limits on approximately half of its motorway network. For one or the other absent-minded driver it can be a problem to adapt to the sections of limited speed after driving over the sections without speed limit (which are indicated with a grey disk on white background notifying the end of the speed limit of 130 km/h). The speed limits ranch between 60 km/h and 130 km/h, although they can be lower on the sections of construction works or alternative routing. In Germany the traffic signs are respected (many foreigners are surprised by this behaviour, and to be honest, the Spanish are the first to do so…). Road safety is taught a lot in the schools and the result makes itself shown.

Let’s go on with the demystification; also the radars abound on the sections with speed limitations and make high quality photos of the driver and the number plate of the car, independently of the actual speed at which they go. The police cars usually are upper class vehicles (Mercedes, BMW, AUDI…) with engines that might be without the usually applied speed limitations and thus can exploit the complete engine power to pursuit the pilots of the amateur races.

The enthusiasts of high speed – as well as the rest – find themselves more frequently than they would desire within the annoying phenomenon what they denominate among themselves as “Stau”, congestions or traffic jams at the entryways to the big German metropolitan areas, although those also appear when there are construction works, or accidents or when one has the bad luck to coincide with a mass locomotion in the holiday period (luck that the holiday periods are different in the different German states). When we are in the middle of a “Stau” (a frequent situation on far journeys), the high velocities can achieve a magnificent 20-50 km/h if we are not halted completely.

In Germany's motorways are more frequently construction works.

Germany geographically is in the centre of the European Union and its motorways endure the greatest density of heavy road traffic on the continent. Those who have circulated on them know the “elephant races”, large queues of trucks overtaking one another which interrupt the traffic flow in the lane if there are few lanes. We also know those who request to pass on the left hand lane signalling with the light of their headlights (something completely forbidden), and something that goes together with the phenomenon of the rear-view mirror, where you see a motorist at some kilometres distance and after looking the other way for a few seconds, you are startled to find him at only a few centimetres of your wheels requesting to pass. The danger of high velocities is evident, it requires a high degree of concentration and produces a higher level of physical and mental fatigue. At such velocities braking is a lot more dangerous, the total braking time is much longer and increments itself nearly exponentially and deviations from the track are more common. The kinetic energy which accumulates itself at such velocities is catastrophical in the case of an accident even if one drives a high class car. In smaller cars at least from 160 km/h onwards the vibrations and the bad engine insulation cause the driver to lift his foot from the gas for fear that the car will fall apart.

Finally I would like to put to mind that when we floor the accelerator in a frontal crash at 200 km/h neither the airbag nor the seat belt are of any use whatsoever and the disaster is guaranteed. Driving at high speed normally is stressing, dangerous and also expensive, but… how can one convince a sentiment?

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Fatal road accidents can be avoided:Principal elements of "Vision Zero"

Tourism and urban mobility "ad hoc"

El uso de Twitter en los transportes públicos

En un artículo publicado por La Vanguardia  “Burbujas con pin”  de Joana Bonet se hacía mención a los importantes cambios que smartphones, eBooks, ipod y demás instrumental tecnológico está ejerciendo en la forma de comunicarnos y relacionarnos los seres humanos. En dicho artículo se destacaban tres cambios:

La protección que suponen esos instrumentos frente a desconocidos con los que compartimos espacios comunes (por ejemplo estaciones de metro, de autobús, los pasillos en los centros públicos, etc.) donde "la gente ya no se mira cortésmente a los ojos porque se refugia en su pantalla". Esta visión choca frontalmente con la defendida por George Amar y su concepto de religancia en los medios de transporte, que ya he explicado en anteriores entradas de este blog. Probablemente esta contradicción responda a la visión poliédrica de un fenómeno humano suficientemente complejo como para poder explicarlo con un solo paradigma.

Significativa es la autosuficiencia que obtenemos con el uso de estos instrumentos, ya no hay que preguntar a un desconocido cómo llegar a un lugar o dónde nos encontramos. Los GPS y todas sus aplicaciones nos han dado acceso al conocimiento inmediato de nuestra propia localización en un sistema de referencia mundial. Pero es que los GPS también han sido un gran avance en la vida en pareja, puedo dar fe de ello, pues he conducido mucho kilómentros por las carreteras de Europa en compañía de mi mujer. Al principio con la ayuda de un voluminoso atlas y después con un receptor GPS Tom-Tom; cuánto estrés y estúpidas discusiones de interpretación y ejecución nos ha ahorrado ese pequeño artilugio electrónico. Obvio es decir que aunque arrinconado... no hemos abandonado el viejo Shell Atlas, porque la tecnología todavía sucumbe a diversas incidencias que el voluminoso y tradicional libro de carreteras aún puede soportar.

Y en tercer lugar el artículo destaca una nueva burbuja privada, término de la urbanista israelí Tali Hatuka, para determinar el aislamiento del mundo físico que propician estas tecnologías, que nos seducen con nuevas formas de comunicación y entretenimiento ocupando nuestro tiempo, especialmente aquel que necesitamos para desplazarnos. Ahora se da la extraña situación que mientras viajamos podemos estar a escasos 20 cm de otra persona a la que fácilmente podemos ignorar. El pequeño dispositivo electrónico crea una burbuja invisible a nuestro alrededor que nos aísla de los demás pasajeros, compañeros más o menos anónimos de nuestros flujos pendulares diarios hacia y por las grandes metrópolis.

Metro de Barcelona

Hace unos meses tuve la fortuna de asistir a una jornada organizada por el AMTU en la ciudad de Martorell y escuchar la ponencia de Sanderijn Baanders  "Impact of social media in public transport. Use of Twitter in The Netherlands" en la que nos explicó algunas de las conclusiones a partir de los estudios sobre el impacto y el uso de las redes sociales en los medios públicos de transporte.

La comunicación a través de Internet se ha diversificado notablemente: desde lo medios más convencionales como los websites, newletters, correos electrónicos o SMS pasando por las redes sociales (Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter y Youtube) hasta las más recientes aplicaciones apps diseñadas para ser usadas en smartphones, como por ejemplo los códigos QR. Resulta interesante observar las implicaciones que por ejemplo Twitter tiene en los medios de transporte (en la ponencia se explicaba el caso holandés) con los flujos de información que circulan entre operadores con pasajeros y viceversa o bien entre los propios pasajeros de transportes públicos. La ponente destacaba que según cuales sean los flujos, variarán los tipos de información que habitualmente circulan por ellos. Sanderijn Baanders clasisfica los flujos en tres grupos:

Del operador a los usuarios. La información que circula en este flujo básicamente es sobre los itinerarios, horarios, noticias de la empresa operadora, incidencias, retrasos, interrupciones del servicio o respuestas a las preguntas más frecuentes de sus clientes.

De los usuarios al operador. La información fundamentalmente se refiere a quejas del servicio que ofrece el operador, preguntas puntuales o genéricas, se informa sobre los efectos de los actos vandálicos y en menor medida se hacen sugerencias para la mejora del servicio.

Entre los propios usuarios. La información suele ser principalmente mensajes de simpatía, cumplidos y ánimo, también se pueden producir intercambios de información sobre las inspecciones de control de billetes de transporte, discusiones entre pasajeros e información sobre eventos, incidentes, flash mob, incluso accidentes que pueden producirse en las infraestructuras de la red de transporte.

Baanders dio datos de dos usuarios de Twitter: @NS_online  (National Railways) operador de ferrocarriles holandés que cuando yo publico este post tiene 46.000 seguidores con un promedio de 500-1.000 tweets por semana y @TotalOVNL usuario que informa de las inspecciones de control de billetes de transporte con 11.900 seguidores y un promedio de 250-1.200 tweets por semana. Al finalizar la ponencia diversos operadores presentes en el encuentro confirmaron que en España también se habían detectado estos sistemas de información para informar sobre las inspecciones a usuarios. Ahora la innovación ya no es un patrimonio exclusivo de unos pocos, las nuevas tecnologías están a disposición de todo el mundo y de forma barata; siempre habrá nuevas herramientas para los viejos objetivos.

Twitter es una herramienta muy fácil de usar, con un rápido crecimiento en amplios sectores de la población y donde tienen muy buena acogida los mensajes que lanzan los operadores para informar a sus usuarios sobre las incidencias o noticias que afectan a los transporte públicos. Twitter se convierte en un importante instrumento de información frente a la baja calidad de otros medios de comunicación durante las interrupciones de servicio o incidentes que se producen en los servicios de transporte públicos. No perdamos de vista la evolución de esta herramienta y su utilidad en la movilidad de los seres humanos.

Mi usuario de Twitter: @moveiter

¿Crees que Twitter es una amenaza para los controles itinerantes de usuarios sobre el correcto uso de los billetes de transporte?



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Using Twitter in Public Transports (english version)

In an article published in the daily newspaper La Vanguardia by Joana Bonet titled “Burbujas con pin” (bubbles with pin), the important changes which smartphones, eBooks, ipod and other electronic devices have on our manner to communicate and to relate ourselves with other human beings are mentioned. In this article three of these changes were pointed out:

The protection these devices provide us, with regard to strangers who share the same space with us (like metro or bus stations, corridors in public installations, etc.) where “people don’t look themselves openly in the eyes any more, but take refuge in their screens”. This vision clashes frontally with the one defined by George Amar and his concept of “religance” in transportation, which has been explained in a number of articles of this blog. This term maybe responds to the multifaceted vision of a human phenomenon sufficiently complex as to explain it with a single paradigm.

Significant is the autosufficiency which we gain with the use of these devices, as we no longer have to ask a stranger how to reach a certain place or our current location. The GPS and all its applications have given us access to the immediate knowledge of our position in a system of worldwide reference. But it also has been a great progress for conjugal live, of which I can bear witness, as I’ve made a lot of kilometres on the European roads accompanied by my wife. First with a voluminous atlas and later on with the GPS receptor Tom-Tom: its many hours of stupid discussions over interpretation and execution that this little electronic commodity has spared us. It’s obvious that – although put aside – we have not abandoned the old Shell Atlas, as the technology sometimes still succumbs to various incidents which this traditional road book can endure.

And in the third place, the article highlights a new “private bubble”, expression created by the Israeli city planner Tali Hatuka to name the isolation from the phisical world, these technologies provide for us. They seduce ourselves with new forms of communication and entertainment which occupy our time, especially the time we need to move ourselves. Now we find ourselves in the strange circumstance that while travelling we can be at 20 cm of another person and easily ignore him or her. The small device creates an invisible bubble around us, which isolates us from the other passengers, more or less anonymous companions of our commute flows to and through the big metropolis.

Barcelona's underground

A few months ago I had the luck to assist to a conference organized by AMTU in Martorell, in which Sanderijn Baanders was explaining in her speech "Impact of social media in public transport. Use of Twitter in The Netherlands" some of the conclusions from the studies about the impact of the use of the social networks in the public means of transport.

Communication via internet has diversified notably: from the more conventional means as websites, newletters, electronic mails or SMS, over social networks (Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter and Youtube) until the most recent applications apps disigned for use in smartphones, as for example the QR codes. It is interesting to observe, what influence for example Twitter has on the transportation (in the conference the case of the Netherlands was explained) with the flow of information that circulates between operators with passengers and vice versa or between the passengers of public transport themselves. The speaker pointed out that depending on the kind of fluctuations, the type of information interchanged also varied. Sanderijn Baanders classified three groups of information interchange:

Of the operator to the users:
The information given in this flow of information is basically about the stops, time-schedules, news about the operating company, incidents, delays, interruptions of the service or answers to the most frequent questions of the clients.

Of the users to the operator:
The information basically refers to complaints about the service rendered by the operator, concrete or general questions, information about vandalism and to a lesser extent about suggestions for the improvement of the service.

Between the users:
The information usually are messages of sympathy, compliments and encouragements, also information interchanges about ticket controls, discussions of passengers and information about events, incidents, flash mob, even accidents that might produce themselves in the infrastructure of the transport network.

Baanders gave data of two Twitter users: @NS_online  (National Railways) Dutch train operator, now  while I'am writting this post has 46.000 followers with an average of 500 – 1.000 tweets per week and @TotalOVNL a user who informs about the ticket controls via Twitter with 11.900 followers and an average of 250 – 1.200 tweeds per week. At the end of the speech different operators present confirmed that also in Spain information systems about ticket controls to users had been detected. Nowadays, information no longer is an exclusive good for only a few, the new technologies are at the disposition of everyone (and reasonably priced); there will always be new tools for the old objectives.

Twitter is a very easy tool to use, with a rapid growth in wide sectors of the population and in which the messages send by the operators to inform their users about incidents or news related to public transport have a very good reception. Twitter is converting itself into an important information tool in comparison with the low quality of other communication means about the interruptions or incidents in the public transport. Let us keep the evolution of this tool and its utility in the mobility of the human being in mind.

 Twitter user

Do you think that Twitter is a threat for the ticket controls in itinere?

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Tourism and urban mobility "ad hoc"

Six goals for the european transport market development (english version)

Intermodal station "Quatre Camins"

The European Commission puts great importance in its strategy to strengthen the political body, which is the union of the European continent, with the development of a potent infrastructure network to join its vast territory of more than 4 million m2 and a population which already surpassed 502 million inhabitants in the year 2011. The working document:  (White Paper) Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area - Towards a Competitive and Resource Efficient Transport Area System, is the most recent report which I was able to read about European infrastructure. Published in 2011 by the European Commission, this report highlights the importance of transport infrastructures for the economic activity: for job creation, the stimulus of Commerce, the improvement of geographic accessibility and the mobility of goods, services and persons which travel through its territory. I think the mentioned document might be quite interesting because of its proposition to project and plan the European Communities’ vision of the future European transport system concretizing the major operative lines to be developed in the next years, which can be classified in three big blocks:

INFRASTRUCTURES:   
Creation of a European transport market on the basis of the infrastructures project TEN-T, the objective of which is the reduction of the current traffic congestions and a substantial improvement of the accessibility to the whole European territory on a small and medium scale level (continental and regional).

ENERGIES:
Reduction of the big dependability of the European transport system on petrol and the design of new contingencies for the foreseeable scarcity of fossil fuel in the near future (Peak oil). In the report the following fact is pointed out: In 2010 the imports of petrol to the European Union amounted to approx. 210 billions. €.

ENVIRONMENT:   
Reduction of the greenhouse gases in order to minimize their effect on the climatic change.

This document proposes quite concrete actions for each of these three fields for the next four decades (comprising a horizon until the year 2050) which I tried to classify in the following 6 major goals as indicated at the beginning: 

1. Reduction of the greenhouse gases by  60 % before 2050 for the complete transport system, with the milestone to reach a reduction of 20 % in 2030 in comparison to the emissions produced in 2008.

2. Change of the transport model: Development of considerably cleaner vehicles, a strengthening of the collective transport where the individual transport only will be used as the “last mile” of the journeys, creation of high speed train lines and corridors for the rail transport of special goods at medium range, thus enabling a sutureless mobility within the territory with a good intermodality between the different means of transport. A change of the transport model based on the intensive use of technology, not only to improve the transfers between the different modes of transport, but also in order to improve its infrastructures (ITS, SESAR, EMTS, SafeSeaSafety, RIS…) and in order to reach with this model a level of economy of scales that permits the apparition of multimodal and multinational logistic operators.

3. Creation of a multimodal transport network between the major cities of the European Union, with train corridors and motorways, by strengthening the intermodal character of the sea ports as well as of interior waterways and by connecting the high speed train network with the European airport network. The creation of a unique European airspace, the creation of a unique train space and the creation of a “blue belt” for the European network for short distance sea shipping.

4. Implantation of a sustainable urban transport system, by using mobility plans in the cities or in the companies and big public installations; by introducing intelligent transport tickets and by using tariff systems by areas and not by mode of transport, by car-sharing, Park & Ride systems near big connecting stations, by potentiating active mobility (like walking, biking,…) and by harmonizing movements of the commuter traffic in the big metropolitan areas.

5. Maintaining the European Union as world leader for road and labour security, by the development of politics of security, responsibility, accessibility and quality of the services and working places in the transport and logistics sector. The European Union has the objective to reduce the number of traffic victims by half until the year 2020 and to reach 0 deaths by traffic accidents in 2050.

6. Internalization of transport costs. Costs on a global scale with the raising of taxes for energy use and with the creation of a market of the emission of greenhouse gases. For the costs on a local scale (noise, pollution and high traffic accumulation) a “toll” for the use of the infrastructures will be introduced and fiscal adaptations in the sector will be made according to the prerequisite: “who pollutes, pays”. This will be established in two phases: In the first phase until 2016, the taxes applied to the sales of cars with combustion engines will be revised. This means, on the one hand, the application of the regulation of the “Eurovignette” (road tax disc) – “who uses, pays” and on the other hand the modification of some of the tributes (those that allow for it) by highlighting the environmental impact they produce to discriminate positively the cleanest vehicles. In a second phase (between 2016 – 2020) this fiscal policy will be consolidated and the costs for pollution and noise level of the harbours and airports will be included. Obviously this document is a lot more extensive and those interested in its content can access to the original via the link which I mentioned at the beginning.

With the ongoing crisis we are informed “through the grapevine” by the media of new reductions and fiscal changes applied to different aspects of our mobility (a right our governments should preserve for us). Many of those measures are more than simply rumours, provoked by economically burdened Governments, and are part of a strategy designed by Brussels to achieve the change of model for our transport and mobility system, which leave little manoeuvring space to the national governments (such as for example delay of measures like the introduction of the “Eurovignette” (Euroviñeta), in the case of Spain, or the modification of the contribution levels which can be applied in different fees). We’ll have to be more and more aware of what is happening in Brussels, as what is decided there, will be more important than what is being legislated in any of the capitals of the member states of the European Union.

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

Tourism and urban mobility "ad hoc"

Versión en español


In anterior articles of this blog I’ve described the evolution from mere transport to mobility, a change which is not brought about by substitution of values and concepts but by addition of new values and new concepts to the existing once and thus causes the expansion of this phenomenon. If we add to the interest transit or comfort have for transport and mobility, “religance” and health, we will advance in a concept of mobility that does not deny the past but one that enriches it with its own evolution. These changes are producing themselves as a consequence of a more ecological and mature social perception of our economic system and of the dominating ideology which manifests itself in other social contexts as planetfriendly or slow food.

George Amar supports the idea that mobility is an integral part of the city. The adherence of each type of transport is linked to its users, to a greater or lesser extend to the territory and probably has an influence on the relations we establish while travelling. When we decide to move we do not only want to go from point A to point B; in most cases we also want to make a different use of our time. This concept of time while we travel is of greatest interest for one of the most important economic sectors of Spain: tourism. Let us draw our attention to the use tourism makes of some of the aspects related to mobility.

Tourism finds in time and landscape two of its most important economic resources, and mobility – in the widest sense of the word – is the vector that puts them at its disposition. For this reason the integration transport shows with the sector of tourism is not at all strange. In this article I will focus on tourism and a determined urban mobility.

Mobility is an essential asset for tourism when we link it to pleasure (to drive a car, to ski, to blade, to climb mountains, to walk,…). The pleasure to move is a value that is exploited by many tourist companies as we are going to see in the next paragraphs. Tourism is framed by activities which are centralized in mobility – which can be active like hiking or biking – or passive like renting a car or a motorbike – and capable to attract many people in order to pass an agreeable and attractive time. The clearest example for mobility and leisurely time use are the cruises and the touristic trains, where the combination of the factors time and landscape are appreciated with a common denominator which gives a special sense to the journey: the itinerary, which is commissioned with a value of its own, the payment is not so much for the distance, but for the time and the services enjoyed.

The localities employed for tourism create their own mobility in answer to the necessities of this kind of economic activities. Very peculiar transport means emerge which only make sense if there are tourists to use them. The photos I’ll show you in continuation are taken in an area very close to the harbour of Barcelona with a comprehensive touristic usage. I would like to stress the promiscuity of the transport means offered by the city in these spots, so that the tourists can get to know their surroundings in a short time. It took me less than an hour to take photos of the vast variety of the means of transport which are circulating there.

Trixi near to Barcelona's harbour

Rickshaw in Barcelona

However, this economic sector also has negative aspects, which should not be forgotten. Tourism tends to consume very concrete spots of a city (normally the symbolically most significant) and it is effectuated in a very concrete time. The intensive use of these spaces increases notably the problems of mobility between tourists and locals. In an article in the newspaper La Vanguardia “Ciutat Vella Low cost” (11.06.2012) this set of problems is reflected in one of the districts of Barcelona. In this article concepts are mentioned like the vulgarization of the city by the appearance of touristic itineraries centered in alcohol, a derivation from the phenomenon of globalized mass tourism, which can affect the relationship and social coherence in the most affected places. Another clear example in Barcelona would be the intensive usage of the space surrounding “La Sagrada Familia” where the stationing of the tourist buses and the streams of guided tourists are restraining daily the neighbourhood of the monument, and make the intervention of the authorities to regulate the usage of this public space necessary.

Tourist coach

Guided visits by segway

Barcelona's Port "Las golondrina"

Touristic bus

On the other hand, urban mobility generated by tourism could be a partially unknown reality for many citizens living in more remote districts of the town and they only come across this phenomenon punctually in certain places or streets.

Another aspect which attracts our attention is that the majority of the activities connected with the touristic mobility related to the mass tourism repeat themselves in the same way no matter in which city of the world we are: Gocar, Tuk-Tuk, Vesping, Ricksaw, Trixi, Segway, touristic buses,…in short its an urban mobility designed for tourists.

A last aspect to be mentioned about mobility and tourism is the slow but steady implementation of digital mobility, Internet and the geo-localization of any place of interest. This relation is being developed on the basis of a new concept: The infomobilty. The virtual world is full of information which explains, how, when and where we can go, an information which is available to millions of human beings, thus creating a potentiality which could be exponential and which could provoke mass tourism. The places we see through the screens of our computer, smartphones or tablet-pcs can generate in many people (for circumstances which sometimes are difficult to explain) the necessity to go and actually be there. This phenomenon in the on-line world is reactivating mobility in the physical (off-line) world. Infomobility is creating new opportunities and activities for tourism and interchanges between individuals, who travel to or from any place in the world.  

By the way, if the crisis has not hit you too hard, have you already thought about where you want to spend your holidays?

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Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge
What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?