The Community of Madrid is developing its tests of "superblocks", new concepts of roads closed to traffic. A project already being tested in cities like Vitoria and Barcelona.
The Madrid City Council continues discussions to limit traffic in the city center with the creation of "superblocks" to reduce the weight of traffic in different areas, give more space to pedestrians and, ultimately, reduce vehicles. Roads safer, less polluted and healthier for citizens, especially the elderly and children.
The local government will launch a pilot project in the Salamanca district by December and then expand it to other districts if successful. One of the people responsible for starting the project is the urban planner Jose Maria Ezquiaga, one of the experts who recovered this proposal already approved 10 years ago as part of a strategic project for the Center of Madrid.
The superblocks
The initial plan is to articulate the urban space into cells of about 12 blocks each, so that they are independent of each other. A sort of "watertight compartments" that is not limited to its own viability but includes its own commercial fabric and its services.
The idea is that all of these "superblocks" include essential amenities and daily activities so that the residents of each have everything at their fingertips in a space with very few vehicles. This would give residents more freedom, so they can go out and walk more regularly in their areas, while also fostering a more sustainable life.
It is an economic and reversible model and, because of this flexibility, its investment in settling would not be high for the coffers of the Community of Madrid.
The creation of the "Superblocks" in the different districts of Madrid, just like those that are already being tested a Barcelona, Does not completely prevent cars from passing inside these cells. The passage would be granted to public transport (with preference for electric ones) to vehicles of incoming residents and to vehicles for loading and unloading goods (with preference for electric ones).
In superblocks the car gives way to pedestrians
On the basis of other attempts elsewhere in the world (shining the Seattle example which constantly "steals" pieces of driveways and returns them to cyclists and pedestrians) the project of the superblocks aims to combine livability and efficiency.
In addition to facilitating the mobility and sustainable life of the residents in each of the "Superblocks", this project is useful for improving the quality of life and air in each neighborhood, thus promoting the reduction of CO2 emissions.
In short, it is a question of reversing the relationship between cars and pedestrians. Vehicles are the current masters of the cities: once the roads and sidewalks are removed, very little remains. Giving back space to citizens, within a framework of green spaces and accessible services, means abandoning the use of cars and making it essential, not superfluous.
And in Italy?
Feasibility studies are continuing almost everywhere, with all the difficulties of the case linked to the economic situation, but our cities seem designed to naturally welcome a revolution like that of the "Superblocks".
Our Florence, for example, seems to have already been designed with this destination in mind. As always, the question is political: the adaptation of our neighborhoods must go hand in hand with services and infrastructures, and thus the "natural" advantage of our cities is reduced due to the slowness in the structuring of spaces.
