There are many open fronts in Barcelona in matters of fight against pollution. The car, for example, which is also holding the battle against congestion. With the pollution on the rise after two years of truce thanks to the pandemicthe Catalan capital does not finish finding the key so that the private mobility descend. The main obstacle -and challenge, at the same time-, the more than 500,000 vehicles who enter the city every day because some metropolitan journeys by car still do not have a efficient public transport alternative. That, in addition to the laziness that it generates change certain habits. The proof of all this is in the low emission zone, active since January 2020. Air quality has improved, but traffic has barely dropped. Have been made super applesremoved parking spaces, they will install radarsthey will open green axes in Eixamplethe orthogonal bus network has been completed, the bike lane network has grown, the tramway will be expanded… Will all this be enough to meet Europe’s requirements?
All mayors have tried to do their bit. Enric Maso pedestrianized the first commercial hub in 1973 (Portal de l’Àngel) at a time when having a car in the family, here and throughout the West, was a symbol of prosperity. Pasqual Maragall created the first superblock (Born, 1993) and published a mayor’s side two years later in which, under the title of ‘pedestrian rights‘, proclaimed the recovery for the walker of “spaces that in certain main roads were destined with primacy to the vehicle“.
for the citizen
The Olympic mayor even announced a bike lane in Aragó also in the 90s, but it ended up shrinking and the road was finally painted on the less controversial Diputació street. Then would come the green areathe bicingthe reform of arteries such as the Ronda del Mig, Sant Joan or Diagonal -or the most recent Meridiana, Glòries, Pi i Margall or La Rambla, still pending- and many other initiatives aimed at return Barcelona to the citizen. And so to this day, where the city drinks and lives from everything voted, done and decided to date, with the eye on 2030year in which everything is supposed to be better than now.
In the current mandate, the ‘comuns’ adopted the philosophy of superblocks, promoted by Salvador Wheel in the mid-1980s from the Urban Ecology Agency which he directed In 2016, the Poble Nou. It generated a perfect storm of criticism, both local and above all political, and the city council lowered its head from its expansion plan. Then would come the less discussed of Sant Antoniwhich with the market was halfway done, or that of Hostafrancs. But little else. And, of course, as a result of covid, tactical urbanism, which was the prelude to one of the emblem projects of the government of Ada Colau: the green axes of the Eixample. Or as the city council calls it, the ‘Superilla Barcelona‘, a concept that is not at all to Rueda’s liking.
In this mandate there will be acted in four streets, and the idea is to intervene in a total of 21 before the end of the decade. Whether or not all this will benefit air quality remains to be seen, because there are serious questions about how they will affect the perimeter streets that will absorb all the traffic. It is a measure that goes hand in hand with the growing commitment to electric vehicleswhich do not generate gases but do give off microparticles, also pollutants, through tires and brakes. But beware, moving from one car to another may partially solve the pollution issue, but not the congestion. And it seems that exactly that is happening with the ZBE, which after two years in force has eliminated 609,000 trips in dirty cars; movements that, however, continue to be made in greener private vehicles because the traffic level it is practically the same as in 2019.
How are we doing?
According to the data collected by the web pollution.barcelonaNO levelstwo they keep going up. The average of the last 12 months stands at 37.01 micrograms per cubic meter, 0.6 more than the previous month and increasingly closer to the limit of 40 established by the European Union. But if you look at just the month of Aprilthe stations are already a few tenths of that border (39.2), with that of the Eixample even above (42.7) and with its annual average at 40.96 µg/m³. It is the seventh consecutive month in which this meteorological terminal exceeds the community legal barrier. The Ildefons Cerdà district it is still the stone in the shoe, with nearly 300,000 vehicles crossing its streets every day, 80,000 of which, through Aragó street.
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But not only cars pollute. There are also the two great infrastructuresport and airport, with its environmental plans aimed at reduce gas emission. They can electrify their own fleet and decide whether to expand its surface (the third runway at El Prat, for example…), but for now, the pollution generated by ships and planes is largely due to progress in terms of fuel.
assumptions
By 2030 it is assumed that the Government will have spent more than 6.3 billion euros on Rodalies of Catalonia. The metropolitan area is supposed to have ‘park&rides‘ at most train stations. The 21 green axes are supposed to be finished. Barcelona is supposed to have a cycling network internal and flag connection. It’s supposed to B-23 entering the Diagonal from the Llobregat will have a new bus-HOV lane. It is assumed that the ZBE will have evolved and cars with yellow label. The last mile of freight distribution is supposed to be in sustainable vehicles or ‘cargo-bikes’. It’s supposed to city will have three new bus stationsr that will put an end to the swarm of supra-municipal buses. And he’s supposed tosharing‘ will have made the leap to the metropolitan dimension. But hey, that’s all guesswork.