“In the end we did not pay much attention to the standard. We are walking as always, ”revealed José. “If in the end the difference is a few meters higher or lower,” argued his wife, Auri. Yesterday this couple walked calmly around the outskirts of the Ciutat de la Justícia, in l ’Hospitalet de Lobregat. They usually walk through this enclave. At one point he arrived on his way down the Gran Via, just in front of the judicial building, at the height of Carrer del Radi, where they passed Barcelona to the second city of Catalonia. There is no indicator that alerts you to the change, illegal until Sunday and that was allowed again yesterday.
Only the bikes give a clue. On one side of the sidewalk there is a Bicing, Barcelona’s shared bicycle service; and across the street an eBicibox, its active metropolitan counterpart in Hospitalet and other metropolitan cities but not in Barcelona. Four poorly counted steps separate the two velocipeds “The norm was very unclear. I think whoever thought about it, did not think about it well ”, José resolved, once released from his compliance.
Barcelona and its metropolitan areas
An ineffective imaginary border
Many were those who yesterday crossed, now under legal protection, this invisible Maginot line, one of several that fade into the urban continuum. At mid-morning, coinciding with their ride schedule, most were older people, although families, cyclists and the occasional young man on an electric scooter were also seen.
Coinciding with José and Auri, all the testimonies collected by this newspaper assumed yesterday that they were already crossing the imaginary border for the past few days, although now they were somewhat more relieved. Everyday life finally prevailed. “Well, I’ve been breaking the rule a bit, really. I have not taken it fully into account, “acknowledged Ciro. “I walk quite a bit and once I got to Bellvitge, but my son abronged me,” he added, making it clear that the rest of the regulations have tried to abide by it.
Also by bike
At two o’clock, the bike lane counter between Barcelona and Esplugues marked 1,240 trips
“I have seen the police give some attention these days, but the truth is that very little,” said Victorino, a man who has also been walking this place for many years. “Yes, like today, I have crossed to Barcelona on more than one occasion, but always with common sense, very little stretch, just to complete the ride,” he insisted. “In the end they had to put the border somewhere. Although I think that no one or almost no one strictly followed her ”, Raquel assumed, accompanied by Sheila and a baby. “I don’t think anything happened to cross a street. What I did not do was go to Plaza Catalunya or other points in Barcelona, ”added Sheila. “For those of us who live near here, in border areas, everything has been a little more complicated,” he said.
Another point where yesterday you breathed more tranquility is in the bicycle and pedestrian lane that connects the towns of Barcelona and Esplugues de Llobregat. There it is simple to cross the municipal limits without realizing it during sports practice. Some took a fine days ago. “One day they warned me,” Esther recalled, riding her Brompton bicycle. “What happened to me is that I didn’t know where the border was. It is not seen ”, he evoked. “I fully understand that some rules must be set, but I was acting with my head,” he claimed. Of course, yesterday you could already circulate with a companion of routes from Sant Just Desvern with total freedom. After two in the afternoon, the lane meter already marked 1,240 trips.
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