Walking and Biking in San Sebastian

If you love to walk or bike, than San Sebastian is the place for you.  It is a great example of a city that has built walking and biking into its design.  You are encouraged to walk, run or bike around the central city.  In urban planning parlance, this concept of design is referred to as “complete streets” where all forms of transportation are accommodated.  In this blog, I put on my urban planning hat and describe these design aspects in some detail, so please skip ahead if it is more than you want to know. 

In the first picture, Linda is standing next to a bike lane that is separated from the bus/taxi lane by a concrete barrier.  Although they allow on-street parking on the inside next to the bike lane, it still has a feeling of safety since it is separated from the faster moving through traffic.

The next picture shows a bike lane that is integrated into a broad walkway that is a favorite strolling area along the beachfront of Playa la Concha.  The bike path is not even within the right-of-way of the street although a down ramp to five levels of underground parking is shown next to the bike path.  The underground parking structure was built several years ago under the plaza between the beachfront and the downtown and has been well landscaped with trees, lighting, benches and trash receptacles.

Along this beachfront walk and bikeway, I have stopped to take in the sun and surf.  In the background over my left shoulder is the hilltop hotel and residences on the west side of the harbor that is just a short funicular ride to the top.  This is another form of transportation connecting the areas together.

Along other streets where there is not enough room for a separate concrete barrier, they use short, plastic stanchions, or posts, in the design to separate bike lanes from the traffic, still having a separate lane for buses and taxis.  This is very evident in the picture of the various lanes going across one of the bridges that simultaneously accommodates autos, motorcycles, bicycles, buses, taxis and pedestrians.

In the next picture, they have fully integrated both a walking path and a separate biking path in the median of a major arterial roadway that is for one-way traffic along either side of the median.  The median is well landscaping and the paths have a meandering quality that is inviting to the pedestrian or biker.

Another technique, as the next two pictures show, is to close selected streets altogether and allow the residents and tourists to enjoy strolling along wide promenades.  These promenades have both restaurants with outdoor dining as well as park like settings for just relaxing, meeting friends, walking the dog or listening to local musicians.

Finally, to encourage biking they have a system of bikes that are locked within bike racks throughout the downtown and can be commonly used.  While I did not find out what the procedure or cost was to use these bikes, I did see a number of people using them to conveniently get around.