Pontevedra - How To Ban Cars Downtown!

Mike Looks At The Map - Episode 14

In 1999, Pontevedra made the bold move to effectively ban all cars from its medieval downtown area, creating the largest pedestrian-only zone in the world at the time. Today, the city is thriving, but how is it bringing in people from the region around it without cars or buses on the roads downtown?

Animations by David Beach

[piermariobarozzi]

Pontevedra is the model for a city for me, beautiful design, well executed

[magnus]

the same two tones at the end of each sentence are driving me kind of crazy 😂

[jrcervincervin]

Ppl won't take the bus.I live in Pontevedra and we are all use to just walking around, it's not that hard. It takes me 20-30 min by foot to croos the owl city to get a bus.Seems like a waste of money to take a bus to get from one side to another, and most of the time you don't really need to walk that much to find what u want. For emergency, you could just call a taxi, they are everywhere here.

[ligametis]

I believe that it is not only impossible to have every street lined with stores but it is also unnecessary, quiet old town corners are also appreciated. You should always have in a near vicinity a place to relax and retreat from fast city life.

[inmortaltupac]

I live in Pontevedra, and is a great city, beautiful and quiet, perfect for walking and practice sports. I encourage everybody to visit it.

[licencetostay]

They are about to implement the same regulations in the city center area of Oslo, but under somewhat different conditions than in Pontevedra.
In Oslo they already have good public transportation to the city center, with metro lines, trams and buses, making it easy to reach without a car. Also, only a tiny proportion of the population actually lives within these boarders, so no residential neighborhoods are affected. In essence, they now have a city center where people wonder freely without any real traffic to worry about.

There's a starch difference between this and an American city, where a significant proportion of your time is spent on waiting by the traffic lights, and where motorised vehicles dictate how things go about in the city

[JL-tnkv]

Cars are NOT the future of transportation, I’m very much in favor of this city’s design. It’s absolutely beautiful. The fact that you HAVE to walk from place to place makes one’s experience there much more intimate, I’d imagine. The people you’d meet, taking in the architecture of the city, finding a cool restaurant or store. It’s beautiful exploration.

The future of transportation is designing walkable cities that are also bike friendly. And also train transit. I agree with setting up trams. Not bus services, but trams. Trams are much better than buses. And if it’s not already possible, providing bike lanes could also help a lot.

Honestly, I’ve never heard of this city before this video. I plan to travel the world and settle down in a country other than my birthplace, the United States. I’ll have to check out Pontevedra in the future, possibly even live there for a period of time to see what is truly like there. I love cities that are centered around the pedestrian, and not the automobile.

[monicafontanfontecoba]

This makes sense since you can go from one side to the totally opposite in the city walking just 30min, also actually cars can drive in most of the roads, they're just made for pedestrians so it's easier to just walk rather than drive. Pontevedra it's a really quiet city and most of the time it's not really croud, specially in the mornings. It is nice but its made for families what makes it quite boring if you're young, and most of the people live in small towns around the city.

[restartagain]

Thank´s for show my city on Youtube. I was born in Pontevedra in 70`s and we are proud of this kind of city. If you want to comme to se in person, you are invited for me and you was welcome. Best regards and sorry for my english.

[lilja]

The best city in Galicia indeed! I've visited it last year and loved it. Congratulations for your video Mike. You have perfectly reflected the reality of the city!

[davidp.]

The best city in Galicia nowadays. Awarded by the UN for its urbanism and quality of life in 2014 and defined by The Guardian in 2018 as a paradise city to live in.

[joselevazquez]

Congratulations on your amazing work Mike! Great video and very well documented! We've just visited Galicia from Madrid and Pontevedra city too of course and it's a great model city. Loved it. Beautiful and lovely indeed, our favourite city in Galicia indeed and with a real Galician flavour!

[iFrostNight]

I really love this series. I want to travel one day, and this has expanded not only my awareness of great cities but an appreciation for the omnipresent struggle to be. Also, cars are very annoying. Why not trolleys? An effective trolley system would keep there from being any cars on the road still, while providing easy access to all regions of the city including places city-goers might have not planned on visiting until they pass it. Trolleys are so beautiful too. Of course they're kinda slow but I can't imagine that being too bad of a trade-off in such a relatively small city. The street car system in New Orleans has always been such a great form of access that often when I visit the city, it's easier just to leave my car in an outskirts parking garage, then walk or use street cars the whole day.

[perlyax]

Nice video but I think you analyze this from an american perspective, I think in Spain we don´t really care about how close we are to a store or if we can´t take the car. We care about people more than stores so basically it will be more important if we can have a walk with friends or a beer or have a calm life going to the local market and that sort of thing rather than if we can go shopping easily.

[abigailgandara]

Like para las personas que viven en pontevedra como yo

[VVV-DL]

Manila, a former Spanish colony, might interest you. It's pre war shopping street called Escolta has lost to shopping mall and highways cut through its historic center. While our other cities like Cebu can show be a nice challenge for you - with a mountain, a resort island, a Spanish fort and a sprawling urban center.

[manooxi]

Perfectly balanced (almost), as all thing should be

[ryanscott]

Wow. I just found out about this city and already love it, as far as urban planning goes. Edinburgh, the nearest city to me, has a medieval Old Town and compact city centre too, but cars, taxis, and buses are crammed everywhere and sidewalks are narrow with uneven slabs and cobbles. There's only one pedestrianised shopping street and there's almost no public space to just sit down and watch the world go by, unless you feel like buying a coffee any time you wanna sit. The city streets don't have benches, there are few trees. The potential is there but sadly car ideology runs deep.

[ibfreely]

The city is as bizzarre as you might think "Shows a normal pedestrian street"

[eliasrieger]

Do you realize that some people... enjoy walking? And that cars destroy cities and the planet?