Lowering traffic in Barcelona by 25 percent could avoid 200 early deaths annually, as indicated by a recent research report.
The Spanish city boasts the highest car density within the European Union with nearly 6,000 vehicles per square kilometer. Reducing the number of internal combustion engine vehicles presents a significant challenge; however, recent findings from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) highlight the substantial health benefits this change could bring about.
Barcelona In 2024, the city's air quality saw an improvement for the second consecutive year, attributed to various measures aimed at reducing pollutants, as reported by the city’s air pollution monitoring network in January.
Some advancements have been initiated, yet ISG’s research envisions complete execution of the Urban Mobility Plan for 2018-2024, which was introduced during former Mayor Ada Colau's tenure.
"This research zeroes in on Barcelona, yet it serves as a blueprint for other urban areas to grasp how specific policies can effectively decrease air pollution," explains Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, who leads ISGlobal's Climate, Air Pollution, Nature and Urban Health program.
In what way could reducing car usage save lives in Barcelona?
The researchers collaborated with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), an organization that has created a system for simulating traffic emissions across the entire city along with the resulting pollution levels.
Starting from a base established in 2019, they developed three potential scenarios, each featuring varying degrees of traffic decrease.
The initial simulation eliminated the majority of polluting vehicles Despite improvements in road conditions, the total number of private cars within the city did not decrease. Consequently, this resulted in a reduction of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels by 5.9 percent—a pollutant known for exacerbating respiratory diseases.
Based on the researchers' model, this prevention strategy would avoid 67 early deaths annually.
In the second scenario, a decrease of 25 percent in the count of private entities is observed. cars Traveling on the road would lead to a 17.6 percent decrease in NO2 concentrations, averting 199 fatalities annually.
The majority of those impacted by this alteration reside in the downtown area — which has the most severe pollution issues — along with neighborhoods situated to the northwest.
How would converting the port to electric power usage change things?
Barcelona’s busy ports also serve as a substantial source of pollution, with about 7 percent of NO2-linked deaths in the city attributed to shipping activities.
By 2030, the Port of Barcelona aims to electrify its docks, and under ISG’s third scenario, researchers examined how this change would affect things when combined with a reduction of private road traffic by 25 percent.
The outcome was a decrease of 19.4 percent in NO2 concentrations and approximately 228 avoidable fatalities annually.
Not surprisingly, this situation would preserve the highest number of lives in the southern parts of the city, those nearest to the coastline.
"The research primarily examines the influence of these policies on NO2 concentrations; however, it is anticipated that they may also contribute positively to climate change mitigation by decreasing greenhouse gases," explains Marc Guevara, who heads the atmospheric emissions modeling group at the BSC.
What measures has Barcelona taken to decrease road pollution?
In the previous year, Barcelona witnessed an all-time low for nitrogen dioxide concentrations. Specifically, at the Eixample monitoring site located centrally within the bustling network of urban roads known for heavy traffic, the levels of NO₂ dropped by almost six percent.
The authorities credited this progress to several factors, such as initiatives aimed at boosting utilization. public transport - which is inexpensive but famously slow and inconsistent.
Low-emission zones have also contributed to reducing pollution by limiting entry for specific polluting vehicles across major sections of the city.
Additionally, as part of the Urban Mobility Plan, 'superblocks' have garnered praise from urban planners globally. Under this initiative, clusters of nine city blocks are gathered and closed off to through traffic. These areas are then transformed into playgrounds and green spaces instead.
However, Barcelona still needs to accelerate its efforts in cleaning up its streets and improving air quality.
"Even though the preventable deaths we calculated are substantial, none of the proposals outlined in our research would meet the updated NO2 standards set forth by the European Union in their latest air quality directive, scheduled to take effect in 2030," explains Ana Ramos, an ISGlobal researcher and lead author of the new study. study published in the Health & Place journal.
This indicates that we need to take further action and implement it more efficiently to enhance the air quality in our city.