Calle Mellado before and after the implementation of the scheme.
Credit: Concello de Pontevedra
People don’t shout in Pontevedra – or they shout less. With all but the most essential traffic banished, there are no revving engines or honking horns, no metallic snarl of motorbikes or the roar of people trying make themselves heard above the din – none of the usual soundtrack of a Spanish city.
What you hear in the street instead are the tweeting of birds in the camellias, the tinkle of coffee spoons and the sound of human voices. Teachers herd crocodiles of small children across town without the constant fear that one of them will stray into traffic.
How can it be that private property – the car – occupies the public space?
César Mosquera
“Listen,” says the mayor, opening the windows of his office. From the street below rises the sound of human voices. “Before I became mayor […]
