“Pontevedra, a Spanish city that chose pedestrians over cars” is the headline of a report published yesterday by the American newspaper The New York Times. An article that is part of a special section on the conference Climate Forward. It talks about the commitment of the capital of the Rías Baixas to pedestrian mobility and the reduction of motor traffic. (You can read it here)
In this article, journalist Tanya Mohn, with images by Matilde Viegas, interviews the mayor of the city, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, who explains to the New York newspaper that, today, in Pontevedra, “the air quality is good 365 days a year. CO2 emissions have been reduced by 70 percent and there is practically no noise. Traffic has decreased by 97 percent in the historic center and between 77 and 53 percent in peripheral areas.”.
The report explains to readers of The New York Times that Pontevedra is a city that “has been a pioneer in favoring pedestrians over cars for more than twenty years” and states that The city “has played an important role in inspiring other municipalities and remains a model for how to successfully meet the challenges of climate change by reducing traffic and emissions.”
In the interview with the mayor that accompanies the information, Lores indicates that in Pontevedra the space dedicated to people has multiplied in recent years since, at the beginning of this project, “Every day the number of vehicles trying to enter was three times higher than in Madrid and five times higher than in London”.
At the moment, “Travel within the city centre, around 90 percent, is mostly done on foot. and 80 percent of children between 6 and 12 years old walk to school and can play safely in squares and streets, and there have been no deaths from traffic accidents since 2011.”
At another point in the report it is stated that People have returned to the city centre:“Pontevedra’s population has grown and is the youngest in Galicia, a region where it has generally declined. Urban transformation is a process we are still working on, but the quality of life is very high.” In 1999, when this project was started –says the mayor in The New York Times– “we wanted a city for the people, a compact city where all the basic services and shops were within a five-minute walk, accessible to everyone.”
Subscribe to continue reading
