Compromís brings back its protest bike ride in Sagunto this Sunday
Compromís Sagunt is organising a 15-kilometre bike ride through the town this Sunday, 27 September, as part of European Mobility Week, calling for more space for cyclists and highlighting illegal rubbish dumps.
Compromís Sagunt, the left-wing pro-Valencian party, is bringing back a public bike ride this Sunday, 27 September — an event the town council itself used to organise for European Mobility Week (an annual EU-wide campaign that encourages people to swap cars for public transport, cycling or walking). The ride sets off at 9.30 am from Plaza Mayor, the main square, and covers about 15 kilometres around the municipality.
The party will use the event to call for more space for bicycles and other non-motorised transport in everyday journeys around Sagunto, and to draw attention to illegal rubbish dumps found along rural tracks and farmland. Compromís spokesperson Albert Oliver says the day combines a push for sustainable transport with a chance to enjoy the local landscape and heritage, alongside the environmental complaint.
The route starts in the streets of Sagunto's old town, then follows the Camí de Gausa — passing close to the Olivera de Gausa, a more than 350-year-old olive tree that is one of the municipality's landmark trees — to join a stretch of the Vía Verde de Ojos Negros (a greenway built on a disused railway line) that runs through the municipality. On reaching the western side of town, riders join the cycle lane along the Palancia River, one of the few established cycling routes already in place in Sagunto. The first leg ends at Plaza 8 de Marzo, near the start of Avenida de la Vila, where there is a planned stop for a rest and breakfast. From there the ride continues along the same avenue before turning off, near the hospital, towards the Camí de Canet, in the direction of the neighbouring municipality of Canet d'En Berenguer. The second leg is a loop along the Palancia River that gradually brings riders back to the old town.
The route does not reach Puerto de Sagunto, but it does link two sides of the municipality: it starts next to the castle and the Roman theatre, in the heart of the historic centre, and later moves into a more rural stretch towards Camí de Canet, before returning along the Palancia riverbank — a route designed, in effect, to show off the variety of landscapes in a municipality that stretches from its old town to its farmland.
Oliver says the route is designed for people of all ages and encourages residents to join a day that mixes activism with a family outing. Compromís argues the ride should highlight the need for more space for non-motorised transport on Sagunto's streets — a debate that, across the European Union, comes to a head every September during European Mobility Week, which pairs local activities with a continent-wide push to rethink how people get around.
The environmental angle is the other side of the event. Compromís plans to use the stretches through rural tracks and farmland to highlight illegal dumping, which the party says has piled up at several points around the municipality, affecting both the landscape and local farming.
Oliver is calling, in short, for more space for bicycles and non-motorised vehicles on the town's streets, and stresses that anyone in Sagunto is welcome to join with their own bike. The ride is free and joins the calendar of sustainable-mobility activities the town holds every year, in a municipality where private cars still dominate trips between the historic centre and Puerto de Sagunto (the coastal district). According to El Periódico de Aquí — Sagunto / Camp de Morvedre and elperiodic.com, with additional background from Wikipedia.