Pontevedra – pioneer for car-free cities

Pontevedra in Spain is considered a pioneer for car-free cities. Read here how the city has changed, what benefits are measurable today and what criticism there was initially.

The future of mobility is the subject of much discussion everywhere. Driving bans and speed limits are often met with resistance. However, a project in Spain shows how a resolute concept can sustainably improve inner-city quality. The city of Pontevedra in the north-west of the country has been going its own way since the 1999s. As the provincial capital of Rías Baixas in Galicia, the town offers numerous sights with small squares, houses decorated with coats of arms with arcades and old churches in the medieval town center. However, the town has become particularly well known for its sustainable transport policy. For over 20 years now, the city center has been largely car-free.

The redesign was a drastic reaction to the intolerable conditions. There were almost as many cars for every 80,000 inhabitants. According to the mayor of Pontevedra, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, there were 14,000 cars a day in the old town alone. It was just chaos. Added to this was the poor air quality and numerous traffic accidents. Xosé Cesareo Mosquera, the head of urban infrastructure, also remembers the status quo at the time: “It was a sad and stressed city, people felt like they had to escape to live on the outskirts.” The city reacted. Under the then newly elected mayor Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, a comprehensive urban transformation began.

After just one month in office, Lores succeeded in converting a total of 300,000 square meters in the city center into pedestrian zones. Since then, only delivery traffic has been tolerated in the old town. Former parking spaces have been transformed into promenades. If you want to park your car, you can now find one of the 15,000 or so parking spaces outside the city center. Most of these are free of charge. Underground parking garages complete the offer. There is also a speed limit of 30 km/h for cars. Road barriers in the form of raised crossings for pedestrians, narrow lane widths and traffic circles promote a steady but slower flow of traffic. The narrow streets are offset by wide sidewalks. They clearly show that pedestrians and cyclists have priority over motorized private transport in Pontevedra. Additional city maps with distances and times on foot help them to find their way around the city.

However, the transformation does not only affect urban infrastructures. People’s attitudes towards cars have also changed over the years. For Mayor Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, the following has been true from the very beginning: “Owning a car does not give you the right to take up public space.” Even local business people, who initially vehemently opposed the measures, are now convinced of the benefits of urban and traffic planning in favor of pedestrians. The predicted slump in customers and sales did not materialize. On the contrary, the citizens of Pontevedra now do much of their shopping on foot. To counteract resistance, the city opted for an inclusive planning process. It organized meetings with the affected residents before redesigning the respective street. This dispelled any doubts or concerns.

Overall, the volume of traffic in the city center has been reduced by 97 percent. Air quality has also improved significantly. Since the introduction of the changes, the city has recorded a reduction in CO2 emissions of over 70 percent. Finally, the number of traffic accidents and road deaths has also fallen.

The model serves as an example for many other cities around the world. Pontevedra has also won international awards for the concept, including the UN-Habitat Award 2014, the Intermodes Award 2013 and the Active Design Award 2015. The transferability of the concept to other cities is a recurring topic of discussion. Mayor Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores himself says that every city has to find its own suitable model. However, there are certainly approaches from Pontevedra that could serve as inspiration elsewhere. According to Mayor Lores, a similar transformation could work in cities with up to 180,000 inhabitants. For larger cities, it could help to think in terms of neighborhoods. For example, concentrating traffic in a few large streets in the urban area in order to make adjacent areas traffic-free.

Above all, a clear plan is essential. Pontevedra’s urban planning follows a concept of compact centers. Instead of urban sprawl and orientation towards the surrounding area, the city promotes inner development. This makes short distances on foot feasible. Communication with those affected is just as important. Only through sensible and comprehensible interventions that bring about a real improvement can the population go along with the upcoming changes. “When you simply remove parking without putting out street furniture or terraces or improving the space at all, then the person who cannot park their car there will be frustrated because it simply appears that nothing is being done with an area that could otherwise be used for parking,” says Lores.

Pontevedra has achieved what many cities long for. A clever hierarchy of means of transport and the corresponding design of urban spaces has created an attractive place. And sets an example for other municipalities around the world: the transformation to alternative means of transportation is possible.

In Germany, meanwhile, there are still arguments about 30 km/h zones. An example from Berlin.