Skip to main content

Barcelona’s strategy to cut car traffic

Barcelona is to deploy a strategy using a variety of approaches to cut car traffic by more than 20 per cent to improve air quality in the city, particularly nitrogen dioxide and particulates. Barcelona's busy harbour and crowded streets mean that air pollution in the city is a constant challenge. The city's Mobility Plan includes reforms to parking charges, the bus network, and the concept of 'superblocks', where access to certain areas is restricted to private vehicles. Previous versions of the conce
March 18, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Barcelona is to deploy a strategy using a variety of approaches to cut car traffic by more than 20 per cent to improve air quality in the city, particularly nitrogen dioxide and particulates.

Barcelona's busy harbour and crowded streets mean that air pollution in the city is a constant challenge. The city's Mobility Plan includes reforms to parking charges, the bus network, and the concept of 'superblocks', where access to certain areas is restricted to private vehicles.

Previous versions of the concept have banned access to all vehicles within a defined zone, with the exception of emergency services, delivery vehicles and those of residents.

Barcelona may only permit access to private vehicles on certain weekends. Five pilot areas have been created across the city to demonstrate how the concept might work. It is also hoped that the move will cut traffic accidents by 20 per cent.

Barcelona's mayor, Xavier Trias, said "The challenge is to ensure that the economic recovery is accompanied by more sustainable and safe mobility."

Related Content

  • Oxford unveils zero-emission zone 
    March 11, 2022
    ZEZ in historic UK city will operate from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm all year round - EVs are exempt
  • Australia's ground breaking average speed enforcement
    February 1, 2012
    The speed enforcement system on the Hume Highway in Australia combines both spot and point-to-point solutions. Here, Redflex's Peter Whyte discusses its implementation. The Australian State of Victoria has achieved notable success in reducing casualty rates since launching a three-pronged road accident prevention initiative in the late-1980s.
  • Trends in automotive technology
    March 14, 2012
    Continental has become a leading player in vehicle technology and telematics. The firm’s executive board chairman Elmar Degenhart describes to Jason Barnes Continental’s views on the ‘megatrends’ of the automotive industry Strategic moves to diversify Continental’s business from rubber-related products began in the late 1990s with the acquisition of ITT Teves and its brake business. This brought on board know-how relating to the then new electronic stability control (ESC) systems which today form an import
  • Flexible, demand-based parking charges ease parking problems
    April 10, 2012
    Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews. Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking.