{"id":3930,"date":"2016-11-01T08:20:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T08:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.carro.sg\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2025-11-05T17:23:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T09:23:57","slug":"barcelonas-superblocks-will-singapore-adopt-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/barcelonas-superblocks-will-singapore-adopt-tactic\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona\u2019s \u2018Superblocks\u2019: Viable for Singapore?"},"content":{"rendered":"Singapore is not the only city gearing towards a car-lite, pollution and congestion free city. In Barcelona,\u00a0the \"grid city\" has been suffering from\u00a0clogged roads and choked air quality, with urban traffic contributing to a whopping\u00a03,500 premature deaths<\/a> caused by air pollution each year. Hence, in 2014, the Barcelona City Council, in collaboration with the Urban Ecology Agency, developed an Urban Mobility Plan<\/a>, designed to increase walkability to\u00a0give the city back to people and reduce pollution.\r\n

What is the Barcelona 'Superblocks'?<\/h2>\r\nA Superblock, or Superilles<\/em>,\u00a0will close off traffic within a square of nine city blocks, with main traffic only allowed around the perimeter. Car, scooter, lorry and bus traffic will only be allowed in the streets in between if they are residents or providing local businesses, and at a greatly reduced speed of 10km\/h. The\u00a0spaces will be repurposed to \u201cfill [their]\u00a0city with life\u201d, as its tagline says.\r\n\r\n
\"Photo
Photo Credit: The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nThis plan will kick off\u00a0in the famous gridded neighbourhood of Eixample. The revolutionary grid design, engineered by Ildefons Cerd\u00e0 in the late 19th century, was created with the intention to make Barcelona healthier by designing the area\u00a0such that the population would be\u00a0spread out equally, as well as by providing green spaces within each block.\r\n\r\nThe entire process is being conducted in nine areas at a different pace, through a gradual trial and error method dubbed \u201ctactical urbanism\u201d, with initial measures such as changing road signs. A further 120 locations have been identified as potentially suitable, and will commence implementation after initial testings.\r\n

What are its expected effects on the city?<\/h2>\r\nThe Superblocks are designed with 6 main objectives:\u00a0More sustainable mobility, revitalising public spaces, fostering biodiversity and urban vegetation, fostering the city's social fabric and promoting cohesion, promoting self-sufficiency in the use of resources, and integrating governance processes.\r\n\r\nA study<\/a> conducted by the local Environmental Epidemiology Agency determined that 1,200 deaths could be prevented in the city yearly just by reaching EU-mandated levels for nitrogen dioxide levels (equivalent to\u00a0a five-month rise in life expectancy). Add to that approximately 33,000\u00a0fewer cardiovascular-related hospitalisations, and the problem becomes apparent for the city\u00a0with a mere population of\u00a01.6 million. Traffic is also the first cause for noise pollution in the city; 61% of its residents live with noise levels higher than those deemed healthy by legislation.\r\n\r\nThe council also cites road accidents, sedentary lifestyles (20% of adolescents in Barcelona are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight), and the lack of green spaces as reasons behind\u00a0the Superblocks plan.\r\n

Can Singapore follow in its footsteps?<\/h2>\r\nCars have reshaped major cities around\u00a0the world, largely at the cost of everyone outside of a private vehicle. Especially where owning a vehicle can be prohibitively expensive, the Singapore government should\u00a0take extra precautionary measures to ensure that commuters do not lose out in the urbanisation process to pave roads for drivers.\r\n\r\nWhich begs the question: Is a Singapore 'Superblock' a viable move for the nation to move towards a car-lite city? Perhaps the idea is\u00a0a little far-fetched for our tiny nation, and would be more suitable for larger cities with an existing grid layout such as New York. However, Singapore has\u00a0in fact<\/em> already taken measures to convert roads into pedestrian zones, starting from Car-Free Sundays<\/a>\u00a0which was pioneered earlier this year.\r\n\r\nAlthough converting and making adjustments to our existing landscapes will mean exhausting more of our resources (to put things in perspective, the Barcelona Superblocks is estimated to cost an approximate \u20ac10m), and drivers may not be receptive to detours and inconveniences arising from it (given that they are already paying such a hefty sum to drive), it is evident that more countries are coming up with more initiatives to find alternatives to driving to reduce its carbon footprint.\r\n\r\nWhat are your opinions on this scheme? Has Singapore done enough with its existing measures to curb driving? Or has the country already overdone it since the implementation of COE prices? Share your opinions with us below!\r\n\r\nSource: The Guardian","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singapore is not the only city gearing towards a car-lite, pollution and congestion free city. In Barcelona,\u00a0the “grid city” has been suffering from\u00a0clogged roads and choked air quality, with urban traffic contributing to a whopping\u00a03,500 premature deaths caused by air pollution each year. Hence, in 2014, the Barcelona City Council, in collaboration with the Urban …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[725],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle-car-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16431,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/16431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}