Cars dominate cities today. Barcelona has set out to change that

For years I used to complain that I couldn’t drive through beach drive (a nice curvy road in Washington DC’s rock creek park) on weekends because they used to close it off to cars. I thought, damn selfish cyclists.

And then I went cycling on beach drive with my wife one weekend.

Wow was it amazing. I got to enjoy it in a whole new way and it was way better than driving through.

I hadn’t realized how much cars get in the way of you just appreciating your surroundings. I think this’ll be the same for cities.

I wish I really wish public transport would work as intended but imagine you live in Paris and have to commute in insanely overcrowded subs ...during strikes or public holidays.

My car is just as reliable as it can get and I resort to using it almost all the time just because of its reliability. I am sorry but it is just more convenient and secure to sit through the traffic. Commuting by public is extremely tiring, you need to stay on alert and also there is a higher possibility of getting sick. I eliminated by sick days almost to zero when i switched from using a sub to a car. And it is worth every euro I spend on gas and parking.

Sounds clean, healthy and economical.

But what about older people, people with disabilities, and work commuters? It seems it might not work well for some of these.

I hope it catches on and the above are just worries that don't materialize.

Related ongoing discussion about Madrid: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19652528.