The Community of Madrid is developing its tests of "superblocks", new concepts of streets closed to traffic. A project already being tested in cities such as Vitoria and Barcelona.
The Madrid City Council continues discussions to limit traffic in the city center with the creation of "superblocks" to reduce the burden of traffic in different areas, give more space to pedestrians and, ultimately, reduce vehicles. Safer, less polluted and healthier roads for citizens, especially the elderly and children.
The local government will launch a pilot project in the Salamanca district by December and will then expand it to other neighborhoods if successful. One of those 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 compartment" that is not limited to its own road system but includes its own commercial fabric and its own services.
The idea is that all these “superblocks” include essential services and daily activities so that residents of each of them have everything at their fingertips in a space with very few vehicles. This would give residents more freedom, so they can get out and walk more regularly in their areas, whilst also promoting more sustainable living.
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 “Superblocks” in the different neighborhoods of Madrid, just like the ones that are already being tested a Barcelona, it does not completely prevent cars from passing inside these cells. Passage would be granted to public transport (with preference for electric ones), vehicles of incoming residents and vehicles for loading and unloading goods (with preference for electric ones).
In superblocks the car yields to pedestrians
On the basis of other attempts elsewhere in the world (shining the example of Seattle which constantly "steals" pieces of driveways and gives them back to cyclists and pedestrians) the superblock project aims to combine liveability and efficiency.
In addition to facilitating the mobility and sustainable living of 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 about reversing the relationship between cars and pedestrians. Vehicles are the current masters of cities: once 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 continue almost everywhere, with all the difficulties associated with 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. The issue is, as always, political: the adaptation of our neighborhoods must go hand in hand with services and infrastructures, and so the "natural" advantage of our cities is reduced due to the slowness in structuring spaces.
