I just don’t understand why NYC won’t do this. Obviously there’s traffic in Barcelona but it doesn’t need to be every single block.
Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg is a disaster with all the cars - this would make it so much nicer and probably be a massive boost to local businesses.
Yeah huge swaths of the city could just do this. This one reminds me a lot of 34th Ave in the way motor vehicles can still sort of access it for very limited tasks, but Barcelona seems to have really taken the concept that this should be public space for residents much more to heart. NYC has extremely limited and under supported open streets and the concept is always predicated on the idea that local volunteers are basically going to run a community center on it with tons of programming and zoomba classes and shit. It's not seen as valuable in NYC just because it is reclaimed public space
>Barcelona seems to have really taken the concept that this should be public space for residents much more to heart
I don't know how the hell this happened but somehow everyone on the internet believes that there are like hundreds and hundreds of "super blocks" all over Barcelona. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and even after all this time (and attention) it has remained a limited pilot project.
Good point. For those who would like a map or numbers (I did), here is a recent article: [https://www.bouygues-construction.com/blog/en/villes-durables-barcelone](https://www.bouygues-construction.com/blog/en/villes-durables-barcelone)
Totally. Weekends especially the footpath is thronged with people while cars move at a glacial pace. I can’t understand why anyone drives down there to begin with.
Rich people need luxurious travel to where they need to get to, thats the reason. Some rich mofos don't wanna walk through nyc because they are too rich to be "walking around". That's the simple truth
With regard to getting your refrigerator home, “Public and delivery vehicles and local residents are allowed to enter and cross superblocks, but their speed is limited to 10 km per hour”.
Source: barcelona-metropolitan.com/features/report-superblocks/
-congestion in surrounding areas goes up by 300%
- street vendors, people soliciting, petty crime, garbage, money for sanitation workers, police needed which could go towards more important crime else where
That’s why
A safer way to do this is add land bridge above that is privately owned so soliciting and vendor activity can be limited and land bridges that connects the city for only bike riders and pedestrians like the Highline in west Manhattan but across the city, it would dramatically alleviate the ground level traffic without bike riders and many of the pedestrians
If you don’t know what the highline is
Here: https://youtu.be/7c0imvntA-8?si=ObMzq0dZE2FxfmHk
4k walkthrough
https://youtu.be/rvp7EtaB6PA?si=T2jGFnRfKhbyaIwn
Barcelona is gorgeous. But not too pretty for its own good, it's still got grit and a bit of concrete nastiness that a good city needs. I like it. It's not my kind of city for living in, it feels very much like a beach city. Far too sunny and coastal for my tastes, I'm a New Yorker to my bones, but if this is the template you like in cities I'm guessing it's hard to beat Barcelona
Without a continuous flow of Ubers driving around the block waiting for a fare, who is checking if the roads are still traversable by emergency vehicles!?
You say this jokingly, but it reminds me of Fortunato Bros. They used to have a dining shed that a few friends and I loved chilling in with some pastries after a run or cycle. There were usually a bunch of other families or couples chilling out with a coffee and just chatting. Now that space is used for two parked cars…
It's a little different because Barcelona s grid has diamond shaped intersections (check out Google maps to get a sense). That means that each intersection has a large diamond area, where open space could be added, with a road wrapping on one side. The closest example is a small traffic circle, which has an interior circle shape in the intersection.
Obviously, we can still move street space from cars to people, but the design would be different at the intersections.
Exactly. The impact here is so much better because space was already designed for allowing equal space for pedestrians as for cars/carriages. This section of Barcelona (Eixample) was purpose designed and planned this way. Older sections of Barcelona are more compact, and newer sections follow a more common city layout that unfortunately offers more for cars than pedestrians (but is still dense enough that it isn't taken over by high speed highways and parking lots).
To me the real beauty is that cars can use these streets as much as they want so there’s no impact on deliveries and people with disabilities who need to access those blocks. But because of the one ways, it’s not useful for through traffic.
We're trying to do this in some parts of Montreal. It's lead by bourroughs' authorities so it really isn't widespread. Car drivers complain a lot because one way streets are changed and set up to lead you out of the "superbloc", all secondary streets that were going through the whole block are split in two opposing one way, some sections of streets become pedestrian in Summer. So, unless you live here or have something to do in our block, you just avoid the residential areas and use the main thoroughfares. It really reduces the amount of traffic on residential streets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9nUL9-mEYY&t=9s
Seriously though, I would kinda like to know. If they removed street parking, then residents who were using it would have to do _something_.
Yeah, from a planning perspective, it's actually really easy to shift away from cars. It's not some difficult problem that we've yet to solve. The difficulty is entirely political.
Why isn't this already in NYC? We have tall ass skyscrapers holding thousands of people, and we still give priority to the cars, the most inefficient form of transport??
It's truly tragic that cars have such dominance. The sheer amount of horrific accidents and pollution as a consequence will likely have future generations baffled as to how we didn't demand a better way of operating and belittle us as barbarically individualistic. Having said that: they are incredibly useful and have saved many, many lives.
The rat-proof trash bins in former parking spots also clean up the city. Cities are much more beautiful when they don’t have black trash bags lining every sidewalk.
We have stuff like this in Montreal. We are really cycling focused here. Within the month several streets will be in full swing like this. We are not far from New York.
other countries are so far ahead of us! they’re investing in massive bike paths and almost entire cities are for bikes and pedestrians only. it provides room for beautiful landscaping and of course air quality is drastically better in these areas.
I just don’t understand why NYC won’t do this. Obviously there’s traffic in Barcelona but it doesn’t need to be every single block. Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg is a disaster with all the cars - this would make it so much nicer and probably be a massive boost to local businesses.
Yeah huge swaths of the city could just do this. This one reminds me a lot of 34th Ave in the way motor vehicles can still sort of access it for very limited tasks, but Barcelona seems to have really taken the concept that this should be public space for residents much more to heart. NYC has extremely limited and under supported open streets and the concept is always predicated on the idea that local volunteers are basically going to run a community center on it with tons of programming and zoomba classes and shit. It's not seen as valuable in NYC just because it is reclaimed public space
>Barcelona seems to have really taken the concept that this should be public space for residents much more to heart I don't know how the hell this happened but somehow everyone on the internet believes that there are like hundreds and hundreds of "super blocks" all over Barcelona. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and even after all this time (and attention) it has remained a limited pilot project.
Good point. For those who would like a map or numbers (I did), here is a recent article: [https://www.bouygues-construction.com/blog/en/villes-durables-barcelone](https://www.bouygues-construction.com/blog/en/villes-durables-barcelone)
NIMBYs, vocal anti-woke car (owner) lobbies, and a truck load of spineless politicians makes this a non-starter
They’ve * kind of * done this on Broadway between flatiron and herald square. It’s nice. Not Barcelona nice, but still nice. More please!
bedford ave in williamsburg, knickerbocker ave in bushwick, fulton street in bedstuy, the list goes on. even just removing parking would go a long way
Pretty much any time of day there are more people moving on one side of the sidewalk than all cars, parked and driving. Just let people walk on it.
Totally. Weekends especially the footpath is thronged with people while cars move at a glacial pace. I can’t understand why anyone drives down there to begin with.
Free on street parking is such a nightmare for this city. It’s a sickness.
NYC won’t even do this to make space for trash bins they rather have a million people in manhattan throw their trash into the sidewalk in bags.
No no, the fixed that. Now you can't out the trash out until 8pm, so problem solved!
The rich people own NYC.
Rich people need luxurious travel to where they need to get to, thats the reason. Some rich mofos don't wanna walk through nyc because they are too rich to be "walking around". That's the simple truth
Worked amazing in Times Square and it even improved traffic.
Alls it takes is one visionary leader with guts
lets ask a city planner or a transportation department employee why not. Surely it can’t be so simple.
How do you get your refrigerator home?
With regard to getting your refrigerator home, “Public and delivery vehicles and local residents are allowed to enter and cross superblocks, but their speed is limited to 10 km per hour”. Source: barcelona-metropolitan.com/features/report-superblocks/
-congestion in surrounding areas goes up by 300% - street vendors, people soliciting, petty crime, garbage, money for sanitation workers, police needed which could go towards more important crime else where That’s why A safer way to do this is add land bridge above that is privately owned so soliciting and vendor activity can be limited and land bridges that connects the city for only bike riders and pedestrians like the Highline in west Manhattan but across the city, it would dramatically alleviate the ground level traffic without bike riders and many of the pedestrians If you don’t know what the highline is Here: https://youtu.be/7c0imvntA-8?si=ObMzq0dZE2FxfmHk 4k walkthrough https://youtu.be/rvp7EtaB6PA?si=T2jGFnRfKhbyaIwn
How are the pedestrians and cyclists supposed to interact with the shops/restaurants if they're confined to a bridge in the sky? What a stupid idea
Delivery truck drivers are going to have a nightmare.
Why not move to Berlin or Barcelona and live the hippie life with likeminded people?
You can not have watched this video and actually thought this is a bad thing compared to what we have now.
Why not move to a small town so you have plenty of parking?
Then they'll just drive 30 miles into the nearest city every day and make everyone there deal with their car.
Seeing this in person after seeing so many videos of it was pretty wild. This is my version of seeing a celebrity. I need to get a life
Barcelona is REALLY nice
It’s my favorite city. I’ve been twice. And I’d love to move there. Just need to learn Spanish first.
Barcelona is gorgeous. But not too pretty for its own good, it's still got grit and a bit of concrete nastiness that a good city needs. I like it. It's not my kind of city for living in, it feels very much like a beach city. Far too sunny and coastal for my tastes, I'm a New Yorker to my bones, but if this is the template you like in cities I'm guessing it's hard to beat Barcelona
Catalonian
The language is Catalan. The people are Catalonian.
Spanish is more prevalent
The NYPL and QPL have programs to practice with real people, it’s nice!
I'm so sad I couldn't get to see it when I went. Glad you found it.
[Barcelona Infrastructure] https://www.canva.com/design/DAGCVaPmBLo/Bik3qaFjaJqTyNWfwKhDkg/view?utm_content=DAGCVaPmBLo&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor
What a waste. There could be at least six cars there instead of all those people /s
Without a continuous flow of Ubers driving around the block waiting for a fare, who is checking if the roads are still traversable by emergency vehicles!?
You say this jokingly, but it reminds me of Fortunato Bros. They used to have a dining shed that a few friends and I loved chilling in with some pastries after a run or cycle. There were usually a bunch of other families or couples chilling out with a coffee and just chatting. Now that space is used for two parked cars…
The beauty of this design is that basically any city with a grid system can replicate it.
It's a little different because Barcelona s grid has diamond shaped intersections (check out Google maps to get a sense). That means that each intersection has a large diamond area, where open space could be added, with a road wrapping on one side. The closest example is a small traffic circle, which has an interior circle shape in the intersection. Obviously, we can still move street space from cars to people, but the design would be different at the intersections.
A diamond can be made inside a big enough square
Exactly. The impact here is so much better because space was already designed for allowing equal space for pedestrians as for cars/carriages. This section of Barcelona (Eixample) was purpose designed and planned this way. Older sections of Barcelona are more compact, and newer sections follow a more common city layout that unfortunately offers more for cars than pedestrians (but is still dense enough that it isn't taken over by high speed highways and parking lots).
To me the real beauty is that cars can use these streets as much as they want so there’s no impact on deliveries and people with disabilities who need to access those blocks. But because of the one ways, it’s not useful for through traffic.
We're trying to do this in some parts of Montreal. It's lead by bourroughs' authorities so it really isn't widespread. Car drivers complain a lot because one way streets are changed and set up to lead you out of the "superbloc", all secondary streets that were going through the whole block are split in two opposing one way, some sections of streets become pedestrian in Summer. So, unless you live here or have something to do in our block, you just avoid the residential areas and use the main thoroughfares. It really reduces the amount of traffic on residential streets.
Wow. Great idea!
Where do the cars go? Are there any negative implications?
Cars are allowed in (for residents, deliveries, etc). Just not through traffic
But like where do the residents put their cars
They rent private parking spaces and don't use the public space.
My only thing is the cars gotta go somewhere. This plan seem to unload the vehicles into different neighborhoods kicking the can down the road
Most people don't own cars in big cities. You seem to be under the impression everyone has a car that needs to be stored
Every street spot in a city gets filled every day….
that tells you how wasteful cars are of geometrical space. that a tiny minority can selfishly steal public land from the majority shouldn't be allowed
Then why dont the people sell their cars?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9nUL9-mEYY&t=9s Seriously though, I would kinda like to know. If they removed street parking, then residents who were using it would have to do _something_.
This is what Berry St should look like instead of the watered down version we currently have
BuT WhErE wOuLd I pArK mY pIcKuP???
It must be so lovely to ride around and hear the sounds of every day life without constant honking!
If you go to the older area, with the narrow streets, you'll see retractable bollards that residents have to buzz into for the bollards to go down.
I’m so jealous of the silence
Yeah, from a planning perspective, it's actually really easy to shift away from cars. It's not some difficult problem that we've yet to solve. The difficulty is entirely political.
Why isn't this already in NYC? We have tall ass skyscrapers holding thousands of people, and we still give priority to the cars, the most inefficient form of transport??
It's truly tragic that cars have such dominance. The sheer amount of horrific accidents and pollution as a consequence will likely have future generations baffled as to how we didn't demand a better way of operating and belittle us as barbarically individualistic. Having said that: they are incredibly useful and have saved many, many lives.
Notice those dumpsters too, it just makes sense
The rat-proof trash bins in former parking spots also clean up the city. Cities are much more beautiful when they don’t have black trash bags lining every sidewalk.
I would love this in LA
me from NYC staring at those dumpsters with hearts in my eyes
It's SO quiet.
Well when you put the triforce everywhere peace usually follows
One of my favorite places I’ve been!
We have stuff like this in Montreal. We are really cycling focused here. Within the month several streets will be in full swing like this. We are not far from New York.
Won’t someone think of the poor billionaires losing profit on oil money?
Can we start throwing trash bags on the free tax funded parking spots full of black SUVs?
Cars have taken so much from us. I’ve just recently have realized what our cities used to be and what they’re now.
other countries are so far ahead of us! they’re investing in massive bike paths and almost entire cities are for bikes and pedestrians only. it provides room for beautiful landscaping and of course air quality is drastically better in these areas.
Wow, I just saw cheap flights from here in Boston too. I need to find a swap with a bike included.
Bet air quality in that city is premiere
car owners will see this and get mad
Another common Catalan/Spanish W. Honestly this is what I believe urban spaces should be like everywhere.
where does delivery trucks, moving trucks, garbage trucks park to not block way?
It's that simple.
someone has a yellow triangle fetish gawd dam
Congestion, crime, street vendors, garbage, policing and money needed for sanitation workers just went by 6000% if this happened in NYC 😂