Comment by beloch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by beloch | Hacker News Reader

This article covers things from a pedestrian's perspective, but it honestly looks like there may be benefits for drivers in this system too.

For one, this plan immediately halves the number of busy intersections along a given stretch of road (and reduces them to a third if multiple superblocks are built adjacent to one another). Yes, no intersections have been physically removed, but the number of vehicles using those intersections is drastically reduced. Traffic signals at those intersections can be optimized to reduce stop frequency/duration for traffic staying on the road meant for cars.

If you live in one of these superblocks, the last kilometer to your house may be slower but, if there are enough other superblocks along your path, your overall trip time may actually be reduced. Fewer stops also mean reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions.

Of course, a big issue is that some streets will now be carrying twice the traffic they were previously built for. Even if that traffic flows better, there may be problems. Making street-side parking on these streets illegal could increase the effective number of lanes available to traffic. After all, street-side parking should be plentiful inside the blocks, and the eventual plan is to build off-street garages.

I'm not convinced superblocks will be bad for drivers.

The article asserts many things about the city.

I don't bring my Mum to Barcelona by a few reasons, and one of them is that she could be unable to cross most roads, as a pedestrian, on time for the traffic light.

Of course that's one of the smallest problems, delinquency being the main one (attracted more in this months by the tourism).

Also people is uncivil with old persons here, the locals and the tourists.

Walking on bike in the sidewalk thinking you have preference over pedestrians also is common here. I've see many fights start by this.

The traffic? for me it's all day car horns. Without any good reason. Always just for the sake of the mass hysteria.

Stressed drivers pushing pedestrians to finish the cross. The same when walking, people push you for the space, even if they are just slow walking and doing shopping and you go clearly to work.

All those theories about traffic are nice. The article tries to make it even more nice asserting stuff.

I don't want my childs to grow up in barcelona, and I don't want my mum to live alone in this city like she can do in others.

I have attended and helped enough persons who had been stolen, kicked, violated, run overs, and what not in just two years.

I cannot take a single beer, without watch traffic problems in Barcelona. And I'm talking of a two channels street, where the main traffic mass, can vary from 5 to 9 cars in the same direction.

Oh you are the owner of this car? a bus just did break all the side of your car, he did go away without stopping. Take man, I did a photo, you can see the car number. This was yesterday.

Traffic is better than Madrid. But still is a "bad thing" for the quality of life of the city. Also in barcelona you need air conditioner, or sleep with the windows open... this is... all night long and in the main hours, old, big, vibrating and poorly driven trucks and buses all around. stopping with squeaky brakes, in each of those corners, and starting again with the engine noise that could not pass a decibel measurement by police.

It mixes with the drunken people and nightly prostitution noise... so at the end, the harley/truck/whatever is just one more noise in the Barcelona's non-stopping symphony.

Squared streets and all that, bike accidents are common here, bike Vs pedestrian problems too. Old people and children cannot walk alone even in relaxed areas. And the traffic (for me that don't own vehicles) and the air pollution is one of the worse things when I try to "live" here.

In the middle of off-topic complaints about Barcelona, there are some objectionable observations.

- Air pollution is a problem in many parts of the city, but it needs to be addressed with the promotion and imposition of cleaner engines. Reducing car use is only a secondary objective of a plan to reclaim streets.

- Bike vs. obstacle and bike vs. pedestrian accidents are much less dangerous than car accidents.

- Like in other cities, there's plenty of quiet corners with few tourists and few cars. Noisy people concentrate in the city center and traffic in the appropriate wide streets like everywhere else, despite the great number of tourists it isn't hell on Earth.

I guess that not everybody can love Barcelona...

This was mentioned by another poster, but I don't see many people addressing it.

What about elderly or disabled people who require car/bus transport to live their daily lives? Are there transportation alternatives for those that can't walk as easily?

I'm not saying this can't work with them, but I'm curious what those options would be. Especially if their neighborhood just becomes one of these superblocks (rather than them deciding to live there).

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