People Over Cars: This City Turns Intersections Into Mini Parks

In the central part of Barcelona, 21 intersections will be transformed into public squares, thus prioritizing people on foot and on bikes instead of cars, and guaranteeing that each citizen in the area is within 200 meters from a small park.

“We want Barcelona to be a sustainable city, to be a livable city,” says Janet Sanz, the city’s deputy mayor for ecology, urbanism, and mobility. “And we understand that today in our public spaces, we have a lot of social and community activities, but they are dominated by private transportation, both moving cars and parked cars.”

In 2016, an intersection was redesigned in the Poblenou neighborhood. As of now, there are six, and eleven are planned in a near future. The project will cost an estimated $44 million and aims to limit traffic inside nine-block grids, also called superblocks. The elimination of traffic and the addition of bike lanes, playgrounds, and green spaces on those 21 streets will make the area quieter, less polluted, and cooler on hot days.