Barcelona's major traffic systems and corridors

BARCELONA’S MAJOR TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

FINAL REPORT FOR THE REGIONAL AND URBAN MANAGEMENT MODULE

STUDENT: FEDERICO WERNER (MATR. NR. 11081386; EMAIL: FEDEWERNER@GMAIL.COM)

JANUARY 12TH, 2012

BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 3 2. THE PUBLIC SPACE AND THE ROAD NETWORK AS THE TRANSPORTATION BASIS: HISTORIC CONTEXT ......... 4 2.1. Barcelona’s origins................................................................................................................................... 4 2.2. L’Eixample ................................................................................................................................................ 5 2.3. The city expansion beyond L’Eixample .................................................................................................... 6

3. PRESENT DEMAND OF TRANSPORTATION ................................................................................ 7 4. PRESENT OFFER OF TRANSPORTATION .................................................................................... 9 4.1. No‐motorized transportation ................................................................................................................ 10 4.2. Transportation in motorized private‐owned vehicles ........................................................................... 11 4.3. Transportation in mass transit systems ................................................................................................. 13

5. THE METRO AREA AND CORRIDORS ...................................................................................... 18 6. ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES ........................................................................................ 20 6.1. Pollution ................................................................................................................................................ 20 6.2. Energy efficiency and CO2 emissions ..................................................................................................... 21 6.3. Noise ...................................................................................................................................................... 21 6.4. Security .................................................................................................................................................. 22

7. FROM THE FIELD: OBSERVATIONS AFTER VISITING THE CITY ........................................................ 22 8. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................ 26 9. CITED LITERATURE ........................................................................................................... 27

Note: due to the layout and form of presentation of this report, some maps were reduced in quality in order to fit into it; yet they still provide useful information for interpretation purposes. Maps in original quality are available upon request.

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1. INTRODUCTION Transportation is a consequence of the existence of space: resources are distributed heterogeneously in a three‐dimension world. Having evolved in this context, moving around is part of human nature and way of life, composed of a myriad of inevitable activities that would almost impossibly be located at the same location. Even the action itself of moving around may be for some individuals an important part of everyday life, and the impossibility of moving is actually a punishment such as that imposed to imprisoned convicted.

The necessities and methods of transportation have changed drastically along human history, in line with the cultural and technological evolution. This works is focused in the contemporary situation in urban locations, specifically for the case of Barcelona City.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, with more than 1,6 million inhabitants distributed in a plain area (the “Pla”) of around 100 km2, limited by the Mediterranean coast and the Collserola Mountains and the Besòs and Llobregat rivers (Fig. 1) (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004). Further 3,2 million inhabitants live in the metropolitan suburbs, which extend over more than 600 km2. Barceloneses sum up almost 6,5 million daily travels around the city, from which more than a half are solved by no‐motorized transport systems (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2011).

Figure 1: Geomorphologic context of Barcelona city: a view of the “Pla” area. Behind lies the Mediterranean Sea (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004).

The outstanding characteristic of Barcelona city is, in the context of this study, its organization of the urban space. That is what defines not only the availability of space for transportation, but also the density and distribution of population and economic activities which are the source of transportation demand.

Initiated with Ildefonso Cerdà’s plan of reform and extension “L’Eixample”, Barcelona’s urban planning has since then implemented innovative and proactive solutions to city’s problems.

The subsequent growth of the city during the 20th century unleashed metropolisation, which due to the specific geomorphological conditions generated urban corridors.

BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

2. THE PUBLIC SPACE AND THE ROAD NETWORK AS THE TRANSPORTATION BASIS: HISTORIC CONTEXT

2.1. BARCELONA’S ORIGINS Even though records exist of human settlement in the area of Barcelona from previous times, is the foundation of the town of Barcino by the Romans (around year 15 BC) the oldest historic event from which the city still holds physical evidence in the form of urban structure.

Since then, through the middle ages and until before the industrial revolution, the city confronted several historic changes and events, yet its extension grew little. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, the city’s urban paradigm was still that of medieval cities: concentration inside the protected citadel.

In this context, transportation was simple in its forms. The city was compact for having an easier defense in the occasions of war, but this also made transportation within more simple in times of low access to technology and resources. Carriages were probably the most complex vehicles the city had to consider when building roads.

The opening of trade with the Spanish colonies in America in 1778 sparkled intensive growth, fueled afterwards by the technical advances of the industrial revolution. By mid‐19th century, wine, cork ad iron industries were booming. In 1848, Spain’s first railway line was opened between Barcelona and Mataró. In‐ betweens, population grew rapidly, boosted especially with migrants from rural surrounding areas. But the city’s residential capacity could not keep up and the living condition of working‐class families decreased.

Poor nutrition, bad sanitation and disease lead to protests which were severely put down. Some relief came in 1854 with the knocking down of medieval walls but the pressure remained acute (Simonis, 2010).

The road network consisted in that time of small streets and passages in the inner city with only some areas still reflecting the original Roman layout, and from its “gates”, a network of roads lead to the neighbouring cities (Fig. 2).

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Collserola Mountains

The Pla

Barcelona City Montjuic Mountain

Figure 2: Detail of a 1608 map of the surroundings of Barcelona: the Pla, kept unbuilt for defense purposes (“Barcelona,” 2011).

2.2. L’EIXAMPLE In 1869, the city’s government commissioned engineer Ildefonso Cerdà a plan for the expansion of the city to the plains located in direction of the Collserola Mountains and the Gràcia city. These plains had remained inhabited until then for reasons of war‐strategy, which had lost its validity by that time (Borja, 2009).

Cerdà’s plan was revolutionary: he proposed a low density but extensive expansion of the city, with an orthogonal grid composed of streets parallel to the coast and its perpendicular streets coming down from Collserola Mountains.

All the design characteristics of the plan followed three guiding theoretical foundations (Busquets & Corominas, 2009): 





Ensuring health: not only sanitation (the urgent solution required by the city at that time) but also mental health was considered by Cerdà, who thought of sunlight reception and air circulation when orientating street layout, construction density and availability of green spaces, among others. The resulting square blocks would not be built up completely, reserving some space for inner parks and gardens for the children and elderly. Social health was also included in the analysis, proposing that a homogeneous grid of streets would prevent differences in land value and thus class segregation.

Circulation: assuring the flux of goods and people was a key aspect, reason why he gave generous dimensions to streets. Also as a premonition of the rise of motorized vehicles, he included angled corners (chamfers), which would be necessary for preventing accidents at greater circulation speeds.

Refurbishment of the existing city: the principles guiding the renewal plan were to affect also the old city.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Figure 3: Map of Cerdà’s expansion plan, showing the original disposition of constructable land per block (“Barcelona,” 2011).

Besides the basic orthogonal street grid, some other major roads were proposed. Some of them observed old roads layout, for example Passeig de Gràcia which was built over the old road connecting Barcelona with Gràcia city located some kilometers northeast. Others followed existing infrastructure (namely railway tracks) or pretended to expand the effect of the plan’s guiding principles to the old city, but not all of them were built.

In the end, the grid makes up the basic configuration of the urban space, and the avenues establish its territorial structure and the relation with the metropolitan region.

The streets, 20 m wide, provide the same space for vehicle traffic as they do for pedestrians. The generous space for traffic has allowed the adaptation of different means of transport over the years, including bus‐ tracks, bicycle tracks and public parking space (Busquets & Corominas, 2009) (also see Chap. 7, foto 3).

2.3. THE CITY EXPANSION BEYOND L’EIXAMPLE The space delimited by L’Eixample was occupied at different speeds, with peaks in the period 1859‐1900, 1929 and 1970 (actually, the whole process didn’t finish and continues now with the refurbishment in Poblenou). The migration‐to‐the‐cities phenomena of the 20th century didn’t occur only in the city center but also in the neighboring localities, of course with the synergy of the central city. Since 1950, the proportion of Barcelona city’s population in the metro region has fallen from 65% to nearly 35% in 2005 (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009a).

The disposition of initial towns, plus the geomorphologic conditions of the area resulted in present Barcelona metro‐region (Fig 4.), whose transportation needs derived in the emergence of urban corridors (See more in chapter 5).

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Figure 4: Geographic configuration and basic data on Barcelona’s Metropolitan Region (BMR) (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009a).

3. PRESENT DEMAND OF TRANSPORTATION

What is the reason for moving? The results of a regular yearly survey on mobility in the city of Barcelona show that most of the travels are motivated by “personal” reasons, such as shopping, accompanying someone, self‐recreation, personal issues, medical reasons, visiting a friend or family. All these causes sum up nearly 70% of the travels, being the rest work (almost 25%, the most important single factor) and attending studies (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2010).

Work is therefore the largest transport motivation of the city. Regarding the distribution of work positions in the city area, is remarkable its high concentration in the L’Eixample district and some industrial areas such as the Llobregat’s delta and the unmatching distribution of population in the suburbs (Fig. 5), generating the commuting of around two million people to the city center in the morning who then go back to the suburbs in the afternoon (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b) (Fig. 6). This number does not include the flux of vehicles of different size used for the supply of goods.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Figure 5: Distribution of population (left, red dots), excluding Barcelona city, and work position (right, violet dots) over the Barcelona’s metropolitan region.

Figure 6: Daily travels of individuals from the different sectors of Barcelona metropolitan region in 1996 (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b).

Table 1: Total travels (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2011) N.b.: BCN: Barcelona, BMR: Barcelona metropolitan region.

Travels

BCN‐BCN

Var% 10/09

BCN‐BMR

Var% 10/09

Total

Var% 10/09

%

Residents from BCN

4.634.556

9,6%

548.487

3,5%

5.183.043

8,9%

80,1%

146.240

‐4,8%

1.142.608

‐2,1%

1.288.848

‐2,4%

19,9%

4.780.796

9,1%

1.691.095

‐5,8%

6.471.891

6,4%

100,0%

Residents from the rest of MAB Total

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

4. PRESENT OFFER OF TRANSPORTATION The solution to the transportation demand is determined by barceloneses depending on the purpose of the mobilization, its length, the time available and the advantages offered by the different mass systems, between a relatively wide variety of options Barcelona has (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004).

As a result of the high population concentration in the central district (L’Eixample) and the relatively favorable conditions for walking (see section 4.1 below), a great majority of the transport needs are solved with no‐motorized transportation in Barcelona city, such as walking or bicycle riding, when travelling inside the city. For inter‐city transportation, the motorized vehicles take a more predominant role (Table 2).

Table 2: Distribution and recent evolution of travel methods and specific composition of the “private transportation” typology (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2011). N.b.: BCN: Barcelona, BMR: Barcelona metropolitan region.

Method distribution

BCN‐BCN

BCN‐BMR

Total

No‐Motor transportation

55,4% (+3,0%)

3,3% (+0,8%)

41,7% (+3,2%)

Public transportation

29,5% (‐2,7%)

48,9% (+0,9%)

34,6 (‐2,0%)

Private transportation

15,1% (‐0,3%)

47,8% (‐1,7%)

23,7% (‐1,2%)

Private transportation Car Motorcycle Other

BCN‐BCN

BCN‐BMR

Total

56,1% (‐2,6)

85,5% (+0,5%)

71,6% (+5,6)

41,8% (+1,5%)

11,8% (‐1,0%)

26,0% (‐6,6%)

2,1% (+1,1%)

2,7% (+0,5%)

2,4% (+1,1%)

The efficiency of public transportation is higher at greater urban densities. Barcelona is not the exception, as the Fig. 7 shows. For movements inside the center, most use public transportation. However, for travelling to the much more extensive area of the suburbs, people choose more frequently private transportation (Fig. 7).

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Figure 7: Usage of private transportation (blue) and public transportation (green) in the inner and connecting travels (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b).

The characteristics of the different transportation types are described in the following sections.

4.1. NO‐MOTORIZED TRANSPORTATION Pedestrian travelling is the single most used transportation method in Barcelona (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2011; Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2010). Barcelona counts with good conditions for walking, such as a soft relief and comfortable weather. But this is also the consequence of the degree of urban density and the diversity of activities, all resulting in the convenience of walking. Barcelona´s government invests efforts in maintaining these factors or even improving them in order to encourage this sustainable and healthy method of transport (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008). The factors constraining the pedestrians are:  

Security: Especially in the interaction with other transport methods. Pedestrians are involved in more than 15% of road accidents in the city.

Availability of space: often construction sites and commercial terraces and activities invade the public space preventing fluidity in the flux of people.

Bicycle is the other component of no‐motorized transportation. Is the fastest growing method in the last years. The city counts with a privately owned fleet of around 210.000 bicycles, from which 40.000 are used every day. The city’s government sees in bicycles one of the best ways to improve the environmental issues of current transport system (see chapter 6). The implemented strategies in order to do so ar: 

A network of 128 km (and growing) of special bicycle tracks (Fig. 8).

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

  

Increasing the availability of bicycle parking spaces.

Allowing the combination of bicycle with other public transport systems, such as metro and trains.

Implementation of the “Bicing” system. Initiated in 2007, provides residents with publicly‐owned bicycles for free use (within a yearly contract). The bicycles (nearly 3000 in 2008) are distributed in 194 stations, generating 28.000 daily movements (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008).

Figure 8: Network of special bicycle tracks.

4.2. TRANSPORTATION IN MOTORIZED PRIVATE‐OWNED VEHICLES Barcelona is not the exception to the universalization of cars in modern cities, which took over the urban space. Their contribution with pollution and noise frequently overshadows the advantages they provide.

Though a very flexible and versatile transport tool, cars are severely space‐inefficient. Barcelona destines 20% of its area to hold mobility infrastructure such as roads, avenues, etc. (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004).

Car congestion in the city is frequently mentioned in reports about sustainable transport (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004) but they offer no more specific information about this problem. On the other hand, the metro area was subject to more intensive studies of the costs to the government and society in general of traffic jams, as is showed elaborately by Abadía & Pineda (2007).

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This study includes also the results of a survey on the reasons for not using a car as a transportation method.

The impossibility of finding parking place is the most frequently used argument. The second reason is that the public mass transit system “is very comfortable” (answered by almost 50% of interviewees). Probably as a consequence of this, the privately owned fleet of cars is in a slow decrease since last years (Table 3).

Table 3: Composition and evolution of private owned vehicle fleet (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2011).

2007

2008

2009

2010

%

Var% 10/07

Var% 10/09

Total

991.151

990.166

981.903

981.580

100,0

‐1,0

0,0

Cars

617.022

608.830

599.534

597.618

60,9

‐3,1

0,3

Motorcycles

Type of vehicles

184.888

193.902

199.407

205.705

21,0

11,3

3,2

Motorbikes, Mopeds

93.783

93.382

90.934

88.391

9,0

‐5,7

‐2,8

Vans

42.234

38.968

36.175

33.451

3,4

‐20,8

‐7,5

Trucks

31.257

30.131

28.520

27.006

2,8

‐13,6

‐5,3

Other vehicles

21.967

24.953

27.333

29.409

3,0

33,9

7,6

The action taken by the city to improve the circulation of vehicles was the establishment of road hierarchies to enhance vehicle circulation (Fig. 9). As a result, over 21% of the road network holds 68% of the traffic(Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008). Furthermore, nearly 25 km of beltway routes have been developed, over which circulates 19,5% of the traffic (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008).

Figure 9: Hierarchy of road network (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008).

BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Hierarchy is also visible in the regional scale (Fig. 9).

Figure 10: Road network in the Barcelona metropolitan region. N.b.: Blue lines: highway; Grey lines: preferential roads; Red lines: Basic roads; Green lines: Local roads.

The difficulties of driving cars have caused the fleet of two‐wheel vehicles (motorcycles, motorbikes, mopeds) to play an important role (see Chap. 7, foto 4). Barcelona is actually the city of Europe with the highest relation motorcycle per person (with a value of 65, compared with 58 in Athens, 42 in Rome, 27 in Madrid and 18 in Berlin) (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004). This phenomena is seen with cautious eyes by the authorities, because though more efficient in the use of space, motorcycles increase the CO2 emissions and especially noise level.

4.3. TRANSPORTATION IN MASS TRANSIT SYSTEMS The public transportation is composed of several typologies: metro, buses, suburban trains, taxis and tramway.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Table 4: Composition, usage and administration of Barcelona’s main mass transit systems (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004, 2011).

N.b.: “n.a.”: data not available.

System

Infrastructure (2003)

Transport demand (million yearly travels, 2010)

Administrator

Metro

6 lines, 123 stations, 87 km of tracks, 581 wagons, 118 trains

381

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB)

TMB Buses

104 lines, 890 km of routes, 2.353 stops, 102 km of special bus tracks, 1.010 vehicles (908 with air conditioning)

189

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB)

Other buses

n.a.

138

Private operators

Taxis

10.486 vehicles

n.a.

Private operators

Suburban trains (RENFE Rodalies)

4 lines

104

Red Nacional de los Rerrocarriles Españoles (RENFE)

Suburban trains (FGC)

2 lines, 13 stations, 7 km tracks, 151 wagons, 43 trains

80

Ferrocarriles de la Generalidad de Cataluña (FGC)

Tramway

Trambaix (3 lines, 25 stations); Trambesòs (1 linea, 14 stations)

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Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB)

Total

916

The metro network, opened in 1924, covers practically all the city, serving 74% of population according to the city’s transport authority (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b; Fig. 11), and it’s expanding: a new line is being built (L9) and three are being extended (L2, L4, L5).

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Figure 11: extension of the metro network (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b). The violet area shows the distance of up to 500 m from a station.

One significant improvement the metro network requires is the improvement of offer/demand relation, considering the saturation of some of the lines (especially lines 1 and 5 in the morning) (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008; Fig. 12).

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Figure 12: Metro network intensity of use (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b). N.b.: The thicker line in the reference represents 150.000 daily passengers.

Train services provide the greatest share of inter‐city transportation. Their layout correlates with the urban corridors (see Chapter 5).

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Figure 13: Coverage of the Rodalies (“proximity”) suburban trains, operated by RENFE (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b).

Figure 14: Coverage of Generalitat (FGC) trains (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b).

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Figure 15: Intensity of use of the suburban train network (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b). N.b: The thicker line in the reference represents 150.000 daily passengers.

Bus network is extensive and much more versatile, though it’s limited in the metro area for it shares roads with normal traffic, originating delays. Travel by bus may take more than the double of time (when travelling to the metro area) than doing that trip by car (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009a).

Tramway lines were opened in 2003 in an attempt to recover this type of transportation.

Both with bus service, this systems are seen as the ideal systems for short‐travel demand, and for elderly.

5. THE METRO AREA AND CORRIDORS

The metropolization is a new challenge Barcelona has faced since the mid‐20th Century and the emergence of cars as the main private transportation method.

Te particular geomorphologic situation of Barcelona originated corridors (Fig. 16).

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Figure 16: The relief as the main factor defining the configuration of urban corridors (modified from Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009a)

The road network reflect these corridors (Fig. 10) and also do suburban trains (Figs. 13, 14).

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Figure 17: Intensity of use of the road network in the metropolitan area (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2009b). N.b.: The circles represent population centers (light green, less than 50.000 inhabitants; brown, more); The graded color scale represent daily flux of vehicles.

The metro region is also the area having to deal with large‐sized vehicles, which serve several industrial areas such as Llobregat river’s delta, and whose entrance to the central area is banned, following the transport authority’s policy of intermodality, that is, the use of different sized vehicles dependind the area of circulation.

6. ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES

6.1. POLLUTION One of Barcelona’s more important environmental problems is air pollution, being its single biggest source private vehicles. In 2007 a report indicated an average concentration of toxic particles putting the city in worst conditions than other even bigger cities such as New York, Mexico City and Tokyo (Simonis, 2010).

BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

In reaction, restrictions were imposed especially in the maximum circulation of vehicles with good results.

However, the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is increasing, probably from the increase in diesel‐ powered vehicles.

6.2. ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CO2 EMISSIONS Spain has signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol of reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. According to its level of development when the Protocol was designed, Spain is classified as an Annex I country, meaning it must reduce its emissions to a level below those of 1990, although the redistribution of emission permissions inside the European Union allowed Spain to reach an increase of 15% (Novak, Tanizaki, & Badiani, 2005). The moderation or reduction of emission would be achieved via real reductions or purchase of carbon credits in the carbon market Simultaneously, transportation is expected to be the economic sector with the largest share of GHG emission in the country. This sector is far from reaching its emission reduction targets (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2006). In consequence, this sector is subject to serious attention in the national plans of emission reduction.

Specifically in Barcelona, transportation is the largest energy consumer, with almost 43%, generating almost 2 millions tones of CO2 annually (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004). From this share of energy, cars consume up to 90%, unveiling the inefficiency of private motorized transportation: cars provide 33% of the travels, but consume 90% of the energy. In the other hand, metro provides 13% of the transportation and consumes only 3,86% of the energy (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008).

For that reason, pedestrian and bicycle transit is being stimulated with the expansion of special tracks, provision of bicycles, etc. (see section 4.1).

6.3. NOISE In Barcelona, opening of the beltway (circumvallation) roads, improvement of the pavement in streets and more demanding car controls have helped curbing noise pollution. However, problems with noise persist in many places of the city. Approximately 50% of Barcelona’s urban space receive noise of over 65 dB along the day, and 35% of population lives in zones where this limit is exceeded (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità, 2006). It is known that motor vehicles generate more than 80% of the noise.

In a study of the noise emission over the city’s road network (Fig. 18), is visible that the noise level didn’t increase in the city center since the eighties, but it has increased in the beltways instead. Probably the congestion in the center avoids noise to increase even further.

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Figure 18: Evolution of noise levels measured in the road network. N.b.: the measured parameter was average daily intensity of noise, though is not possible to identify the units in the original. The graph is showed anyway for graphical interpretation.

(Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2008).

6.4. SECURITY The collision between vehicles and knocking down are the most frequent types of accidents in the city, being more than 80% of the total. The rest of the accidents are related with crashes to obstacles, knocking or falling motorcycles. In beltways, knocking with the vehicle in front is the cause of 55% of the accidents (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2004).

7. FROM THE FIELD: OBSERVATIONS AFTER VISITING THE CITY

We made a visit to the city with the R.U.M. course between 14th and 16th December, 2011. I personally had arrived three days earlier.

My first and main finding after arriving to Barcelona was the easiness of moving around with public transportation. Actually, during our trip to the city and my previous stay, I and later the group didn’t use a gasoline‐motorized vehicle at any time, though it’s also true that the trip’s activities were concentrated in the central district. Yet all the mobilization we needed, the public network provided in a much satisfactory way.

Following are some “field‐notes” with fotos.

Foto

BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

Comment 1. Ciutat Vella (Old city) and L’Eixample: This is Via Laietana, a “Cerdà‐like” road in the middle of a historic district. Most cars simply pass through: lots of noise and smoke.

2. Ciutat Vella: in this case Barcino, and its relation with modernity. In the morning, hoards of vans fill its plazas and limited open spaces in order to supply shops around them.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

3. Modern L’Eixample: The chamfered corners offer a versatile space for car and motorcycle parking and/or garbage tones. The bicycle tracks are rally frequently present.

4. Modern L’Eixample: A regular street. High presence of motorcycles. At no moment traffic seemed congested.

5. Modern L’Eixample: The wider Carrer de Aragò works as a potent traffic “tube”. These avenues are used for long hauls, so cars pass through as fast as possible.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

6. Modern L’Eixample: new bicycle tracks have their share even through the stylish Passeig de Gracìa.

7. Transport offer: “Bicing” stations are really all over the city…

8. …and they are really being used.

9. Transport offer: the metro. The same type of tickets available in metro is valid for tram and buses.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

10. Transport offer: the Tram, covering areas newly developed.

8. CONCLUSIONS

“Barcelona is the jewel in the urban regeneration field. (…) Barcelona is a city that, quite simply, works.”

Arch. Lord Richard Rogers, The fragmented city and the role of the architect.

Even though conflicts persist (actually, would it be possible not having conflicts at all?), the outstanding fact in Barcelona is how it has proactively worked to solve and prevent them, especially from the field of urban planning:   

The concentration and choking environment of the city in 18th century was solved with L’Eixample’s innovative approach of huge (for the parameters of that time) space for mobility.

After the success of L’Eixample’s, the city faced car congestion, noise and air pollution. The city rapidly responded diversifying and expanding the transportation offer, specially with metro.

The challenges of present times are those related to environmental issues. The city’s intention is to increase the room for not‐motorized transportation (pedestrians and bicycle riders), and diminish the carbon‐intensity of today’s system.

The strength of planning efforts has not diminished. Currently three main guiding plans were adopted: the Urban Mobility Plan (specific for Barcelona city), the Regional mobility plan (metro area), and the Pact for Mobility in Barcelona (which is a participative instance and also cover all the metro area).

In any case, it seems that the responsibility and destiny of Barcelona is to overcome itself. The success in some aspects must be used as an impulse for other objectives.

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BARCELONA’S TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CORRIDORS

9. CITED LITERATURE

Abadía, X., & Pineda, M. (Eds.). (2007). La congestión en los corredores de acceso a Barcelona. Barcelona: Fundación del Real Automóvil Club de Cataluña. Retrieved from http://www.racc.es/ pub/ficheros/adjuntos/adjuntos_congestio_esp_versiondiciembre_ok_jzq_810fdcaf.pdf Ajuntament de Barcelona. (2004). Mobilitat més sostenible, ciutet més confortable. Barcelona. Retrieved from http://w3.bcn.es/fitxers/mobilitat/guiamobilitatsostenible.442.pdf Ajuntament de Barcelona. (2008). Pla mobilitat urbana Barcelona. Barcelona. Retrieved from http://w3.bcn.es/fitxers/ajuntament/pmubarcelona.513.pdf Ajuntament de Barcelona. (2011). Dades bàsiques de mobilitat 2010: Resum. Barcelona. Retrieved from http://w110.bcn.cat/Mobilitat/Continguts/Documents/Fitxers/dadesbasiques2010resum.pdf Autoritat del Transport Metropolità. (2006). Pla Director de Mobilitat de la Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona: Criteris de Sostenibilitat. Barcelona. Retrieved from http://www.atm.cat/web/ca/ mobilitat/documentspdm‐elpdm.php Autoritat del Transport Metropolità. (2009a). Pla director de mobilitat de la Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona. Barcelona: Autoritat del Transport Metropolità. Retrieved from http://www.atm.cat/ web/ca/veure.php?pdf=ca/_dir_pdm/pdM‐PlaMobilitatRMB&h=750 Autoritat del Transport Metropolità. (2009b). Pla Director d’Infraestructures de la regió metropolitana de Barcelona 2001‐2010. Memòria actualitzada. Barcelona. Retrieved from http://www.atm.cat/web/ca/ infraestructures/memoriapdi.php Autoritat del Transport Metropolità. (2010). Enquesta de mobilitat en dia feiner. Retrieved from http://www.atm.cat/web/pdf/ca/mobilitat_dia_feiner_rmb/files/mobilitat_rmb.pdf Barcelona. (2011).Wikipedia. Retrieved December 4, 2011, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona Borja, J. (2009). Luces y sombras del urbanismo de Barcelona. Barcelona: Editorial UOC. Busquets, J., & Corominas, M. (Eds.). (2009). Cerdà and the Barcelona of the future: Reality versus project.

Barcelona: Consortium of The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.

Novak, M., Tanizaki, J., & Badiani, R. (2005). Kyoto Protocol and Beyond: The Economic Cost to Spain.

Brussels: International Council for Capital Formation. Retrieved from http://www.iccfglobal.org/ pdf/Spainfinal101705.pdf Simonis, D. (2010). Barcelona City Guide (7th ed.). Victoria: Lonely Planet.

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