Barcelona Will Supersize its Car-Free ‘Superblocks’

[M II A II R II K]

Barcelona Will Supersize its Car-Free ‘Superblocks’


November 11, 2020

By Feargus O'Sullivan

Read More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ck-will-be-big

Since the Spanish city of Barcelona introduced its first “superblock” in 2016, the concept of carving out islands of car-free space by routing traffic around multi-block areas has been influential in cities around the world. Now the Catalan capital plans a major super-sizing of the idea: Over the next decade, Barcelona will convert its entire central grid into a greener, pedestrian-friendly area almost totally cleared of cars.

- Mayor Ada Colau announced that 21 streets in Barcelona’s Eixample district will become a kind of super-superblock, vehicle traffic will only be permitted around the perimeter, leaving streets within the district only accessible by motor vehicle to residents, essential services or deliveries. By all-but-barring cars, Barcelona will free up space for 21 new pedestrian plazas at intersections. — These squares and streets will be planted with trees that will shade 6.6 hectares (16 acres) of new green space when mature, in a zone that will contain an extra 33.4 hectares of pedestrian space. With work beginning in 2022 to a budget of 38 million euros ($45 million), the plan represents one of the most thorough revamps of a major European city so far this century. It is an attempt, Mayor Colau said in a statement, to “think of the new city for the present and the future with less pollution, new mobility and new public space.”

- In a city of few parks and extreme population density, the superblocks have proved to be an effective way to free up street space for other uses, including new squares, public seating areas and tree-lined green avenues. But they have also faced resistance from motorists, who in the past have organized demonstrations to protest the car restrictions. — The project will probably prove more difficult to implement than those installed in quieter areas. While bustling parts of the city have been given the superblock treatment before the current plan will extend from a smaller existing superblock around the Sant Antoni covered market they have never extended for as great a distance as the new zone. The city is thus proposing a staggered introduction, one that starts by redesigning intersections along a single east-west axis and extends gradually across the neighborhood. The plan kicks off with a public competition to create four new plazas along a main artery in the area.

.....

[hauntedheadnc]

I just have to say that whenever I see a newer elegant city plan like this, or in Paris or somewhere, adjoining or imposed over the historic cow-path plan of the old city... I get all giggly.

^ not sure what you mean. it's all existing grid. the map just highlights the part of the existing grid that would allocated to pedestrians.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

^ not sure what you mean. it's all existing grid. the map just highlights the part of the existing grid that would allocated to pedestrians.

I mean I love city plans like that of Barcelona, where you can clearly see that after a few centuries of life in the old town, someone thought to graft an elegant grid onto the side of it. See also Haussmann's Paris and the New Town of Edinburgh.