Up to here everything clear, right? But … why the Ciutat Amable? And what does it mean?

The concept of Ciudad Amable is the result of a collective reflection arising from the ICE Ciudad 30. The central idea in which it is based is that cities and their public space have to approximate their design to the human scale and thus promote the empathy, confidence, security, joy … Kindness is a special way of treating others and an attitude to address problems in a positive way. In our case, the problem translates into the need to change the urban paradigm to turn our cities into convivial, sustainable, healthy, inclusive places …

The Friendly City is committed to investing the current priorities that our municipalities and cities have in the use of public space. In the vast majority of the cities have located the private motor vehicle in the center and authentic privileged planning have forgotten the warmth that comes with kindness. A Friendly City has as a true reference all people (integrating gender differences, age, class, mobility capabilities and other diversities) and the needs they have: health and well-being, access to goods and services, sustainability …

But this was not a bike event? Yes, of course, but not only. We start from the bicycle and consider it the main tool for the change of paradigm that can lead our cities to be friendly. The characteristics of the bicycle make it a symbol of this new culture, however, the effort is not enough from the cycling movement, but it is necessary to form a network with many other movements, collectives and entities (neighborhood, youth, pmr … etc …) and hence the objective and motto of the congress “Towards the friendly city, we all tell”.