One of the reasons why you said “yes, I do” to Meet BCN and chose it from among all the coworking spaces in the city was, without a doubt, because of its strategic location in one of the most emblematic neighborhoods of Barcelona. Working in the heart of the city has many more advantages besides the prestige implicit in this location. You have a great connection to public transport, restaurants of various styles, a multitude of local shops and businesses, modernist architecture and monuments… The Eixample easily makes anyone fall in love!
Now that the good weather is here and we can finally enjoy life outdoors a little more, we feel like going out for a walk and taking advantage of everything this magnificent neighborhood has to offer. Barcelona is increasingly aware of the importance of taking care of its citizens and has therefore taken a series of initiatives to improve the city. We will tell you about the street and traffic calming measures that are in place to make the Meet BCN area an even more pleasant place!
Calming streets for pedestrians
One of the main objectives of the Barcelona City Council’s action plan is to return public space to citizens and adapt it to the new mobility that the city needs.
The streets of Consell de Cent, Rocafort, and Girona will be calmed. To achieve this, the City Council will widen the pavements by 4 meters and reduce traffic to a single lane limited to 30 km/h.
Another area affected by the new mobility plan will be two of the city’s main arteries: Diagonal and Gran Via. In the case of Avinguda Diagonal, the south side (sea side) will be closed between Plaça Francesc Macià and Passeig de Gràcia. The north side (mountain side) will also be closed between Paseo de Gracia and Carrer Marina. As for Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, the south side will be closed between Plaça Espanya and Plaça Tetuan. The north side, however, will remain open to facilitate bus traffic.
Motorcycles removed from sidewalks to give more space to citizens
Another action to recover space on the streets for pedestrians and ensure safe distance will be the removal of motorcycles from the sidewalks. This intervention will be carried out in twenty areas of the city (two per district) and on the roads Consell de Cent, Girona, Rocafort, and Via Laietana. In exchange, new spaces on the road and underground parking will be promoted.
Improving the bus lane network
The promotion of public transport is also one of the main strategies to avoid an excessive rise in the use of private vehicles with the deconfinement. In total, 17 interventions will be implemented to create or segregate some bus lanes to improve the efficiency of the service and reinforce the bus network. The affected roads near Meet BCN will be Balmes (between Granada del Penedès and Avinguda Diagonal and between Valencia and Aragó), Passeig de Gràcia (between Rosselló and Avinguda Diagonal), Valencia (between Roger de Llúria and Bruc) and Roger de Llúria ( between Council of Cent and Aragon).
Expansion of bike lanes
The best option for sustainable and healthy travel in the city is, along with walking, the use of a bicycle. For this reason, the Barcelona Bicing service has built 57 new stations during these last months of confinement. In addition, the City Council will create 21 new kilometers of bike lanes to encourage their use in streets such as València (between Tarragona and Avinguda Meridiana), Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes (between Aribau and Passeig de Gràcia) or Pau Claris (from Plaça Urquinaona to Avinguda Diagonal), for example.
As we have seen, all these street calming measures will allow for safer, easier, and more sustainable mobility and we will recover a large part of the public space intended for pedestrians. This is how it feels to go out for a walk around the neighborhood after leaving Meet BCN! Shall we meet at 7 pm?