"In 50 years, we won't be here. What will mobility be like in the coming decades?" The question was posed by journalist Raquel Sans at the beginning of the first round table of the event with which the RACC celebrated its 120 years of history this Thursday at La Pedrera. A question that, in reality, was also an invitation to look back. Because imagining the future —as generations of the club have done— always implies understanding the past.
The chosen setting was no coincidence. La Pedrera was also born in 1906, the same year as the Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya (RACC). The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, highlighted this coincidence as a symbol of an era in which the city was buzzing with ideas and projects driven by people who "anticipated changes."
The event gathered nearly 200 guests and a large part of the country's top institutional and economic figures. Attendees included the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; the president of the Parlament, Josep Rull; the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni; former presidents Artur Mas and José Montilla; and former mayor Xavier Trias. Also present were prominent representatives from the business and institutional world, such as the president of the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona, Josep Santacreu; the president of FemCat, Tatxo Benet; the president of Fira de Barcelona, Pau Relat; the director of the Servei Català de Trànsit, Ramon Lamiel; and the president of Barcelona Global, Ramon Ajenjo.
Mateu: "The Racc is a collective heritage of Catalonia, built generation after generation"
From motorists' club to a community of almost a million members
In his speech, the president of the RACC, Josep Mateu, defined the entity as a shared legacy for the country: "It is a collective heritage of Catalonia, built generation after generation."
The club was founded in 1906 by a small group of pioneers —among them the painter Ramon Casas— in a Barcelona that still moved with trams and horse-drawn carriages and where the automobile aroused more distrust than enthusiasm.
Since then, the RACC has been a witness and actor in the great transformations of mobility. "We have seen the transition from horse-drawn carriages to popular automobiles, from the first traffic signs... and now there is talk of drones," Mateu recalled.
What began as an automobile club is today an organization that offers services to a community of more than 890,000 members. "120 years of history, of commitment to people and to the country," summarized the president of the RACC.
Mobility and city model
One of the ideas that has permeated the entire day is that talking about mobility is, in reality, talking about how we want to live. "Defining mobility is defining the city model we want," said Collboni, who described the RACC as "an essential piece in Barcelona's mobility," especially at a time of urban and infrastructure transformation such as the works on the future Sagrera station. Xavier Trias reiterated the same idea during one of the debate tables. According to the former mayor, the key to managing a city well is to be clear about where you want to go: "The most important thing about a city is that whoever governs it is clear about what they want that city to be." In the case of Barcelona, he said, the goal must be to combine international projection with quality of life.Source: "Cerdà's planning should be extended to Tarragona and Girona"
And that, above all, involves planning. "The challenges are to plan well. And jointly," he stressed.
The reflection on planning has also appeared in the territorial sphere. Ricard Font has proposed broadening the metropolitan urban planning perspective beyond Barcelona: "Cerdà's planning should be extended to Tarragona and Girona."
Anticipating changes
The president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, placed the birth of the RACC at a particularly intense historical moment. "It was founded in a dynamic and ambitious Catalonia, with an industrial revolution in full swing, a bourgeoisie willing to lead and a mobilized working class," he explained.
According to Rull, the club was born with a clear vocation: "to provide institutionalism and embrace modernity." And, in these 120 years, it has known how to identify "the levers that moved the world, anticipate modernity and automotive and motorcycle culture, reflect on sustainability and the energy transition."
The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has also insisted on this idea of historical perspective. "120 years ago there were also tensions and nervousness," he recalled. "But there were people who saw the risks and decided to act, look forward and take advantage of opportunities." For Illa, the current moment presents clear parallels with that beginning of the 20th century. Faced with a context marked by new technologies and global uncertainties, he has defended the need to govern innovation with a common good perspective.
Also planning people's lives... and the future
If the institutional debate has focused on urban planning, the RACC has also emphasized planning for people's needs. The entity's general director, Xavier Pérez, explained that the club works to anticipate social and demographic changes. Needs, he said, are not the same throughout life, nor are they the same depending on the era.
Hence initiatives such as Club 65, designed for a generation that lives longer and with more autonomy, or the entry into new areas such as pet services. "Today there are more dogs than children under fifteen," he pointed out.
This look towards the future also involves imagining how we will move in a few decades. The RACC is already preparing for a scenario with more connected, autonomous, and shared vehicles. "We believe in safer, cleaner, more adapted to people's needs, and more affordable mobility," Mateu summarized.
The club's history is also closely linked to motor sports. As early as 1908, with the Copa Catalunya, the RACC has contributed to "placing our territory on the international motor sports map." Today this tradition continues with the Circuit de Catalunya and with the training of new generations of drivers.
But the mobility of the future —the speakers agreed— will be very different from the one that saw the club born. Cleaner, more shared, smarter, and safer. A future that, if the trajectory of these 120 years is fulfilled, will again demand the same as in that 1906: vision, capacity for anticipation, and good planning.