Photo by Matthew Wiebe

Last weekend, we were overwhelmed by the news about the death of Muriel Casals, ex-president of the Omnium Cultural organization and member of the Catalan Parliament in Junts pel Sí party, who was run over accidentally by a bicycle in the center of Barcelona.

A terrible piece of news, the cause of which we don’t want to be a reason for decreasing the spirit of everybody who works to achieve that the bicycle will get to be one of the more used means of transport (even the most used one) in the cities. This is due to the fact that we think this kind of accident can be reduced to 0, because the bicycle is a healthy means of transport and can also be safe. But this can be only achieved if we work together.

Far from repeating, as we have done other times, the advantages of the bicycle’s daily use or the safety tips again, we want to share this fragment from the note written by the Assamblea Catalana d’Entitats de la Bicicleta (Catalan Assembly of the Bicycle Entities), “Dels ciclistes en memòria de Muriel Casals” (“From the cyclists in memory of Muriel Casals”), with which we feel very identified.

“And it is because we love life, actively, involving ourselves in it every day with our personal habits of mobility, that when this ingenious and simple machine, which is the bicycle, our tool to fight for a better life, ends up causing a shortening of a life by a wretched and unfortunate circumstance, it is inevitable for us to intensely and deeply feel the sorrow and the mourning”.

In Catalan:

“I és perquè estimem la vida, activament, involucrant-nos-hi cada dia amb els nostres hàbits personals de mobilitat, que quan aquesta màquina enginyosa i senzilla que és la bicicleta, la nostra eina per lluitar per una vida millor, acaba propiciant l’escapçament d’una vida per una malaurada i desafortunada circumstància, se’ns fa inevitable sentir intensament i profundament la tristesa i el dol”.

Only through everyone’s solidarity and sense of responsibility will we achieve a better city.