[et_pb_section fb_built=\u00bb1″ admin_label=\u00bbsection\u00bb _builder_version=\u00bb4.9.10″ custom_padding=\u00bb0px||||false|false\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00bb{}\u00bb][et_pb_row admin_label=\u00bbrow\u00bb _builder_version=\u00bb4.9.10″ background_size=\u00bbinitial\u00bb background_position=\u00bbtop_left\u00bb background_repeat=\u00bbrepeat\u00bb custom_margin=\u00bb||||false|false\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00bb{}\u00bb][et_pb_column type=\u00bb4_4″ _builder_version=\u00bb3.25″ custom_padding=\u00bb|||\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00bb{}\u00bb custom_padding__hover=\u00bb|||\u00bb][et_pb_image src=\u00bbhttps:\/\/cimne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/superblocks_cenit_es.jpg\u00bb title_text=\u00bbsuperblocks_cenit_es\u00bb _builder_version=\u00bb4.13.1″ _module_preset=\u00bbdefault\u00bb custom_margin=\u00bb||||false|false\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00bb{}\u00bb][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=\u00bbText\u00bb _builder_version=\u00bb4.13.1″ background_size=\u00bbinitial\u00bb background_position=\u00bbtop_left\u00bb background_repeat=\u00bbrepeat\u00bb global_colors_info=\u00bb{}\u00bb]<\/p>\n
Air pollution has been described as the \u2018new tobacco\u2019<\/strong> by the head of the World Health Organization. In fact over 90% of the world\u2019s population suffers toxic air and research is increasingly revealing the profound impacts on the health of people, especially children.<\/p>\n Taking a look closer to home and the numbers are startling. Barcelona has the most cars per square kilometer in Europe<\/strong> and air pollution causes 3.500 premature deaths per year (Source: World Economic Forum)<\/p>\n CENIT\u00b4s Genis Majoral is heading up the on-going exploratory research into Barcelona\u00b4s SuperBlocks<\/strong>. He explains in more detail \u201cthe externalities of Barcelona\u00b4s urban mobility issues not only include pollution but also extend to include life expectancy, commuter and total travel time, noise and heat island effects<\/strong>. We have seen that here in Barcelona we urgently need a paradigm shift away from the car-centred urban planning model and towards a people-centred approach<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u00b4s Eixample<\/strong> (literally translated as Extension, which effectively linked the historic center to the outlying villages in 1860) is a gridiron pattern of traffic congestion and pollution with virtually no green areas<\/strong>. A radical scheme – creating a total of 503 superblocks – could cut air pollution by a quarter, and bring Barcelona\u2019s NO2 levels into line with the WHO recommendation of a maximum of 40 micrograms per cubic meter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Majoral is keen to share a balanced view, \u201c many of the critiques of Superblocks are focused on concerns regarding the physical extent of the mobility effects in terms of how far downstream a superblock affects mobility<\/strong>. There is of course also an optimal number of superblocks given the size of the city and the traffic demand. Our research will analyse the trade-off between those areas inside the SuperBlock and the surrounding urban areas<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n CENIT\u00b4s Samra Sarwar explains further \u201cSuperblocks are groups of streets where traffic is reduced to close to zero<\/strong>, with the space formerly occupied by cars given over to pedestrians, green spaces and play areas<\/strong>. In this sense the focus of our research is to analyse the SuperBlocks scheme in the form of a practical case study in Barcelona and its impact on reducing traffic and reassigning urban space<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n Genis Majoral is a Transport Economics researcher and PhD Research fellow at CENIT<\/em><\/p>\n Samra Sarwar is an Urban Mobility Researcher, PhD candidate and Severo Ochoa fellow at CENIT<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Air pollution has been described as the \u201cnew tobacco\u201d by the head of the World Health Organization. In fact over 90% of the world\u2019s population suffers toxic air and research is increasingly revealing the profound impacts on the health of people, especially children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":251182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=\"no\" hundred_percent_height=\"no\" hundred_percent_height_scroll=\"no\" hundred_percent_height_center_content=\"yes\" equal_height_columns=\"no\" menu_anchor=\"\" hide_on_mobile=\"small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility\" status=\"published\" publish_date=\"\" class=\"\" id=\"\" background_color=\"\" background_image=\"\" background_position=\"center center\" background_repeat=\"no-repeat\" fade=\"no\" background_parallax=\"none\" enable_mobile=\"no\" parallax_speed=\"0.3\" video_mp4=\"\" video_webm=\"\" video_ogv=\"\" video_url=\"\" video_aspect_ratio=\"16:9\" video_loop=\"yes\" video_mute=\"yes\" video_preview_image=\"\" border_size=\"\" border_color=\"\" border_style=\"solid\" margin_top=\"\" margin_bottom=\"\" padding_top=\"\" padding_right=\"\" padding_bottom=\"\" padding_left=\"\"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=\"1_1\" layout=\"1_1\" spacing=\"\" center_content=\"no\" link=\"\" target=\"_self\" min_height=\"\" hide_on_mobile=\"small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility\" class=\"\" id=\"\" background_color=\"\" background_image=\"\" background_image_id=\"\" background_position=\"left top\" background_repeat=\"no-repeat\" hover_type=\"none\" border_size=\"0\" border_color=\"\" border_style=\"solid\" border_position=\"all\" padding_top=\"\" padding_right=\"\" padding_bottom=\"\" padding_left=\"\" margin_top=\"\" margin_bottom=\"\" animation_type=\"\" animation_direction=\"left\" animation_speed=\"0.3\" animation_offset=\"\" last=\"no\"][fusion_text columns=\"\" column_min_width=\"\" column_spacing=\"\" rule_style=\"default\" rule_size=\"\" rule_color=\"\" hide_on_mobile=\"small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility\" class=\"\" id=\"\"]\r\nThe Latin American Development Bank report highlights the current investment gap in the region and reviews intervention strategies to tackle future challenges and trends<\/h3>\r\n[\/fusion_text][fusion_text columns=\"\" column_min_width=\"\" column_spacing=\"\" rule_style=\"default\" rule_size=\"\" rule_color=\"\" hide_on_mobile=\"small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility\" class=\"\" id=\"\"]\r\n\r\nIncreased and sustained investment in infrastructure is of paramount importance for economic growth in any region, and nowhere is this truer than in the Latin American region where inconsistent and insufficient investment<\/strong> was noted as the main cause of slower economic growth<\/strong> during the mid-term period 2007-2012. Falling investment in transport infrastructure and logistics has had a knock-on effect on the commercial development of the region as a whole.\r\n\r\nThe Latin American Development Bank, founded 50 years ago, recently funded an investment analysis study of the region\u00b4s intercity land transport sector, focusing specifically on road and rail. Irene de Cubas, CENIT\u00b4s Research Engineer for the report explains\r\n\r\n\"We know there is a direct correlation between a country or region\u00b4s GDP and transport infrastructure. In fact, Latin America<\/strong> is an extreme case, having a very limited transport network in relation to land area and population. So this is what we would call an infrastructure gap<\/strong>, in other words the need for investment projects to gradually bring the region in line or on an even footing with other regions such or Europe, North America or Asia Pacific to encourage long term increased economic growth and prosperity as a whole\".\r\n\r\nSpecifically, the report highlights:\r\n\r\n- Performance and sustainability indicators<\/strong> and impact of new technologies\r\n- Capacity and demand measures<\/strong> to determine the need for future investment\r\n- Gap analysis<\/strong> comparing land transport infrastructure to the OECD objective\r\n- Overriding trends and challenges<\/strong> in the transport sector\r\n- Social and environmental effects<\/strong>\r\n- The impacts of expected technological innovations and the expected medium and long-term effects for Latin America\r\n- The need to establish criteria<\/strong> for selecting those projects that can provide the greatest added value, the focus being to prioritise profitable and sustainable projects\r\n\r\nAs with all long term strategic investment projects, it\u00b4s not just about doing things right, but in fact doing the right thing in the first place.\r\n\r\n[\/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DSagX8dknQI\" alignment=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" autoplay=\"false\" api_params=\"&rel=0\" hide_on_mobile=\"small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility\" class=\"\" css_id=\"\" \/][\/fusion_builder_column][\/fusion_builder_row][\/fusion_builder_container]","_et_gb_content_width":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Barcelona's SuperBlocks: Urban Space and Mobility - a Cost Benefit Analysis Perspective - CIMNE","description":"Air pollution has been described as the \u201cnew tobacco\u201d by the head of the World Health Organization. In fact over 90% of the world\u2019s population suffers toxic air"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[284,40],"tags":[460,483,482,484,481],"class_list":["post-251181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cenit","category-innovation-news","tag-emissions","tag-pollution","tag-superblocks","tag-traveltime","tag-urbanmobility"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}