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Comment by bb101 | Hacker News Reader

Very interesting idea. However, losing two through-streets out of every three will triple the traffic on the remaining through-street.

The people living on the interior of the superblocks will enjoy a more peaceful car-free environment, but the people overlooking the through-streets will experience more noise, pollution and congestion.

I wonder how Barcelona plans to compensate the residents of through-streets for the newly introduced inconvenience (and predictably lowered real-estate value with respect to their neighbours).

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I'd expect the total automobile traffic to be reduced, rather than all of it concentrating on the through streets. Making driving less convenient will push people who don't have to drive to leave their cars at home and go with public transport, bike or foot instead.

It can also do a number of other things:

* cause people not to travel at all, thus keeping money in their pockets rather than spending it to benefit the economy

* cause people who do not live in the city to drive to other places--places where their preferred mode of transportation is accommodated--to work or transact business

* cause people who live in the city to leave due to increasing frustration with their inability to go where they wish.

Luckily they can go to a number of other cities that accomodate their needs!

I'd hypothesize that your car fetishists are egotistical and hazardous drivers when they're sharing streets with pedestrians and cyclists. City centers wouldn't miss them.

I think you'll find that billions of people get around without cars just fine.

It can also do a number of things:

* causes people to not travel far away and to spend their money in the local economy

* cause an increase in people using public transport to get into the city because it is now a nice experience inside the city

* increase the health of individuals that are walking more and breathing less pollution thus making the city a more desirable place to live

* revitalise local businesses in each area leading to a more diverse stronger local business

* increase the amount people spend because they're walking past shops rather than driving past them and ignoring them

It's an equilibrium thing. People only have a certain tolerance for bad traffic, so to some extent as congestion increases fewer people drive. And vice versa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearing_traffic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeed's_law

I also would like to see how it turns out. Some people might switch to bicycling or walking. It might even decrease car ownership numbers.

> will triple the traffic on the remaining through-street.

It is almost certainly less than triple, because of latent demand.

The residents will not get any compensation. That's just the way it works in Spain.

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