Riese & Müller: Promoting urban mobility in Catalonia from Germany

Hours spent stuck in traffic, nowhere to park, getting held up behind a delivery truck… These and many other annoyances are more frequently becoming part of everyday life in metropolitan areas around the world. As more people live and work in cities, including in Catalonia, conventional transport systems are being pushed beyond their limits. E-bikes and cargo bikes are part of the solution, with an increasing number of people recognising their potential.

When you face the challenges of modern urban mobility on a daily basis, they are difficult to ignore. No one wants to waste valuable time in a congested urban environment. Change in Catalonia can start with recognising that the car should not be the default means of transport.

Instead, climate-friendly and sustainable alternatives should be considered an integral part of the modern mobility system. That is what Dr Sandra Wolf, CEO of Riese & Müller, believes.

Her vision is particularly relevant to cities such as Barcelona, Tarragona and Girona, where limited urban space creates challenges for both private and commercial transport. E-bikes and cargo bikes can provide practical alternatives for everyday journeys, shopping, family transport and urban logistics.

Cycling highways

The transition towards a more sustainable and climate-friendly form of mobility goes, however, hand in hand with the development of public space, says Wolf. “Without proper infrastructure, such as safe cycle paths separate from the road for cars, less traffic on roads that are regularly used by cyclists, and more generally an improved network of bike paths are among the things we need in European cities.”

The producer of high-quality e-bikes is on a mission that is broader than selling e-bikes and is involved in many projects designed to test and develop alternatives in practice, particularly in its home country of Germany, but also in Switzerland.

In Stuttgart, for example, the German company supplied 100 Transporter2 65 cargo bikes to the municipal “Stuttgarter Rössle” rental scheme. The bikes are available to residents through long-term rental, giving more people access to cargo bikes without requiring them to purchase one themselves.

In Switzerland, Riese & Müller has also worked with carvelo2go, an e-cargo-bike sharing project that started with 18 rental stations in Bern in 2015 and has since expanded across the country. Riese & Müller has supplied the project with e-cargo bikes, while the model demonstrates how shared cargo bikes can provide an accessible alternative to car use for everyday journeys.

Riese & Müller has also long promoted the development of cycling-friendly urban infrastructure, working together with municipalities and policymakers to encourage better conditions for cyclists. The German bike brand has been involved in initiatives supporting cycling-friendly road infrastructure, including cycling highways designed to connect different areas and enable cyclists to travel efficiently and safely.

Castelldefels

In Catalonia, meanwhile, its philosophy and vision also create opportunities for local advocates to contribute to change. Juan Antonio Flecha, for instance, has been working as a Riese & Müller ambassador to promote cycling and encourage improvements to the urban environment in his hometown of Castelldefels, where the local government in recent years has removed bike lanes and is conservative towards the development of a more sustainable urban environment with climate-friendly alternatives to cars.

“We need to rethink how we want to shape the cities we live in,” says Dr Wolf. “I believe that the answer lies in creating a more diverse mobility system.”

For cities such as Barcelona and Girona, this raises some important questions: how can urban spaces like Barcelona, Tarragona and Girona be redesigned so that bicycles, e-bikes, cargo bikes, public transport and cars can work together more effectively? And how can this help reduce traffic jams, the lack of parking spaces, overcrowded city centres filled with delivery trucks and the road stress that comes with increasingly congested streets?

From Germany, Riese & Müller is making the case that the bicycle should have a much more central role in this debate.

Riese & Müller is a German manufacturer of premium e-bikes and cargo bikes, founded in 1993 by Markus Riese and Heiko Müller. The company develops and produces its bikes in Mühltal, near Darmstadt, and focuses on practical, high-quality solutions for everyday mobility.