This is how Barcelona acts to reduce the use of private vehicles

Every day 900,000 vehicles enter and leave Barcelona. Reducing this figure has become a priority for the government team headed by the mayor, Ada Colau. Its objective is that, in two years, 82% of trips are made on foot, by bicycle or by public transport and that the share of private vehicles falls below 20%. In this way, the city seeks to comply with the air quality standards established by the EU, and also avoid "a thousand premature deaths per year", in the words of the mayor.

There are different initiatives underway, such as the superblocks (pedestrianization) in the Eixample, the hourly limits on the circulation of polluting vehicles -the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE)-, the expansion of regulated parking spaces and the implementation of Barcelona Endolla, a public system for charging electric vehicles, which already has 12,900 registered users.

Added to all this is the reform of emblematic avenues such as Via Laietana, Las Ramblas, and the central section of Diagonal, through which the connection of the two existing tram networks will run from 2028. Meanwhile, the public operator Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) is building a plant that will supply green hydrogen to its buses and is renewing its fleet to reduce emissions.

The employers' association of the large Catalan company, Fomento del Trabajo, has become the main voice against Colau's mobility policies. "Criminalizing the private vehicle is a mistake" since "in the near future, it will be connected, intelligent and environmentally sustainable," says Salvador Guillermo, deputy secretary general. In his opinion, the City Council has its priorities wrong and its bets should be to demand an improvement of Cercanías, "promote an intense renewal of the vehicle fleet" so that the most polluting ones stop circulating, and encourage electrification.

From Terminus, a study center specialized in public transport, Joan Carles Salmerón regrets that the City Council focuses on "small-scale actions" and not on "the improvement of large mass transport systems such as the bus, the tram and the train". "In railways, there are pending challenges for years, such as the improvement of medium-distance lines and international services", he explains.

In commerce, which generates 22% of employment and 15% of local GDP, there is also concern. “We are aware of the environmental context, but there has been a lack of consensus and the impact of these plans on businesses that first suffered from Covid-19 and now, the rise in prices, has not been taken into account,” says Salva Vendrell, president of the federation. of commercial hubs Barcelona Comerç.

Barcelona Global, which brings together 130 companies in the city, has just presented a report where it appreciates several deficits in the municipal strategy. Among them, the blocking of shared electric scooters, the lack of dissuasive parking and the absence of interoperability between the city's public bicycle rental system -Bicing- and the one that TMB will promote in the Metropolitan Area.