Pedestrian Pontevedra – a Model Green City
20 years ago, a city in the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula started moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the planet. Pontevedra, a city with 82,000 inhabitants, was like every other city inundated by cars, noise, smog and double parking; however, the local government pushed through a plan to limit vehicle access to the historic centre and the old part of town – which residents and shop keepers alike fought tooth and claw to prevent. Today traffic is only allowed in one quarter of the city, and the inhabitants are asking the council to amplify the restrictions.
The citizens of Pontevedra have discovered that it is possible to escape from the usual noise and pollution of the big cities. The 80,000 vehicles that daily crossed the city centre in the late 90s have been reduced to 7,000; and 1.3 million m2 of streets have been given back to the pedestrians. A spokesman for the local government that implemented the plan emphasizes that it is essential to have an integral plan for how and where the traffic will move before starting to turn a city into a pedestrian precinct.
In Pontevedra they allow only the necessary traffic: Access to garages, loading and unloading, public transport and certain services by private vehicles.
To rid itself of the cars going around in circles looking for a parking space, the local government has prohibited parking in the centre for more than 15 minutes at a time. There are just a few parking spaces that can be used for short errands.
In the accesses to the centre, signposting diverts the traffic towards the bypasses and stops vehicles from entering from the north and exiting to the south via the town centre.
And to dampen drivers’ urge to rush, the speed limit all over Pontevedra is 30 kmph, traffic lights have been substituted by roundabouts, the zebra crossings are elevated and the traffic lanes have been narrowed.
All these measures have resulted in the traffic flowing more fluidly through the city centre in which, as opposed to other city centres, the number of inhabitants and the economic activity are on the up.
The town council has calculated that the CO2 emissions in Pontevedra have gone down by 67%, the equivalent of 500 kg per inhabitant per year
According to Ecologists in Action, the city’s air quality is well below the maximum pollution levels as recommended by the WHO.
Pontevedra is the place to go if you want to visit a city centre and still breath clean air and hear the sounds of birds chirping and people talking.
