At the press conferences loss balanceit is inevitable a certain feeling of imbalance. Between the figures, tragic, and the measures that will be taken to try to alleviate the situation. The diagnosis is painful, with more than 20 accidents with injuries every day in Barcelona, with dozens of dead and wounded severe over 12 months. But the treatment, in addition to the good work of the accident investigation and prevention team of the Urban Guard, always knows little. On one occasion, in the previous mandate, it was reduced to putting into circulation a non-logo police car who would go portraying offenders. That peculiar taste in the mouth has returned this Thursday after knowing the plan of measures against noise pollution 2020-2030. It is a very serious health problem, maintains the city council, but the solutions may not distill the forcefulness that could be expected from data as conclusive as this: 57% of the population faces noise levels caused by higher traffic on a daily basis to the maximum limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Gemma Tarafa, Councilor for Health, first exposed the balance of damage. He has spoken of four great impacts: the Sleep disorderthe cardiovascular diseases and metabolic, mortality derived from these heart ailments and the cognitive development of children. In other words, sleeping poorly can generate anxiety and stress, and that overwhelm can lead to the worst possible ending. According to Barcelona Public Health Agency210,000 Barcelonans (16% of the population) suffer a intense discomfort (severe emotional, psychological and social affectation) and more than 60,000 suffer from a serious disorder of sleep due to continued exposure to traffic noise. He too rumble of cars is responsible for 300 new cases a year of ischemic heart disease and 3% of deaths from this disease. That means 30 dead per yearmore than double the number of people killed in traffic accidents in the city during 2021.
stressed areas
Faced with this disturbing postcard, the consistory proposes a series of measures and studies. For both traffic and night leisure, the other major source of noise, although only 3% of the population is exposed to intolerable levels as a result of this activity. Is a misleading percentage, since it is the average of the seven days of the week, which silences and leaves out of the graph many areas whose problems are concentrated only on the weekend. That there are no more sources of hubbub, by the way, is yet another piece of evidence that Barcelona is no longer a industrial city Many years ago.
The council has created a list of acoustically stressed areas at night. After the foreseeable approval of the municipal plenary session, in the session at the end of May, it is expected to start a study phase of all these squares and streets (see map) to promote a plan adapted to each area. It is not expected, in case someone asks, change opening hours of bars and restaurants. It was done in the Plaza de Osca, for example, and that generated, in addition to the anger of the Guild of Restorationan unfavorable court ruling. One year from the elections, the government of Ada Colau for more demands.
This enclave of Sants is one of those mentioned in the black list of the late night noise. And it is not a thing of now: already in 2014, the then mayor of Barcelona, Maria Assumpció Vilaurged the consistory that then governed Xavier Trias to intervene to “solve problems of coexistence and noise”. The neighbors of the oscar squareand those of the rest that are epicenters of the night noise, will be able to request subsidies to insulate their windows, an aid, has specified the Councilor for Climate Emergency, Eloi Badiawhich is expected to be “the last resource“, because all the pedagogy and collaboration with the agents involved go first to avoid having to admit that the problem is inevitable.
The list
In that list, by the way, it is striking that they include “some squares of Vila de Gràcia“. To questions from this newspaper, the city council indicates that they will be specified later “together with the district and the neighborhood associations”. The rest of the black spots are the following: Enric Granados, George Orwell, Joaquim Costa, Almirall Churruca, Rambla del Poblenou, Rogent, Allada Vermell, Nou de la Rambla and Triangle Lúdic.
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Some of the plans underway by the council, such as the green axis plan the city project 30 (in reference to the speed limit) are part of the medicines provided for treat the patient. The same thing happened in the previous plan, which addressed the years 2010-2020, when it spoke of “enhance the service of Bicing and bike lanes”, of the promotion of ‘car sharing’, of the school roads or the sound-reducing flooring. Also 12 years ago there was talk of the role of the 30 zones and, through the Housing Consortium, aid was promised for the home soundproofing.
In the plan that is beginning now there will also be awareness campaigns to motorcycles and mopeds and will be installed two acoustic radars that for now they will not sanction but that they will serve, Badia has detailed, to see how the situation is. They have not specified where they will be placed because, in principle, they will change their location. Similarly, it will increase protection of school environments (the idea is that there be 200 before the end of 2022) and between June and the end of September, 48 informants will be deployed throughout the 10 districts (in areas of special citizen attendance) who will be in charge of raising awareness of the need to reduce the ambient noise. The distribution of these civic agents may be the real map of night noise in Barcelona. Time will tell if all these measures will succeed in silencing the city. Or if things will stay the same, with much ado About Nothing.