“Listen,” says the mayor, opening the windows of his office. From the street below rises the sound of human voices. “Before I became mayor 14,000 cars passed along this street every day. More cars passed through the city in a day than there are people living here.”

Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores has been mayor of the Galician city since 1999. His philosophy is simple: owning a car doesn’t give you the right to occupy the public space.

“How can it be that the elderly or children aren’t able to use the street because of cars?” asks César Mosquera, the city’s head of infrastructures. “How can it be that private property – the car – occupies the public space?”

a metro-style map of pontevedra shows typical walking times. 

“They stopped cars crossing the city and got rid of street parking, as people looking for a place to park is what causes the most congestion. They closed all surface car parks in the city centre and opened underground ones and others on the periphery, with 1,686 free places. They got rid of traffic lights in favour of roundabouts, extended the car-free zone from the old city to the 18th-century area, and used traffic calming in the outer zones to bring the speed limit down to 30km/h.

The benefits are numerous. On the same streets where 30 people died in traffic accidents from 1996 to 2006, only three died in the subsequent 10 years, and none since 2009. CO2 emissions are down 70%, nearly three-quarters of what were car journeys are now made on foot or by bicycle, and, while other towns in the region are shrinking, central Pontevedra has gained 12,000 new inhabitants. Also, withholding planning permission for big shopping centres has meant that small businesses – which elsewhere have been unable to withstand Spain’s prolonged economic crisis – have managed to stay afloat.

flickr/rodolforamallo

“The city is the perfect size for pedestrianisation,” says local architect Rogelio Carballo Soler. “You can cross the entire city in 25 minutes. There are things you could criticise, but there’s nothing that would make you reject this model.”

…

“Pontevedra is well connected by road and rail. It sits on the A Coruña-Tui railway and motorway corridor. Pontevedra is located between the Galician capital Santiago de Compostela (58 km to the north) and the largest Galician municipality, Vigo (30 km to the south). Pontevedra city itself does not have an airport in its municipality but the city is relatively close to the airports of Lavacolla to the north (in the municipality of Santiago de Compostela) and Peinador to the south (in the municipalities of Redondela, Mos and Vigo). A good network of roads and motorways efficiently connects Pontevedra with the other Galician cities, and also with Portugal (55 km to the south), and inland (100 km to the eastern city of Ourense). Regular bus lines link Pontevedra with other Galician cities and towns, as well as with Madrid, Porto and Lisbon (among others).

The AVE high-speed train (in Spanish Tren de alta velocidad, or TAV) reaches Pontevedra and the city is a stop in the “Atlantic Line”, running from the northern Galician city of A Coruña to Lisbon (Portugal).[22][23][24] Likewise, Pontevedra will benefit from the high-speed train connecting Galicia and central Spain. That Galician connection will be fully operational in 2018.[25]Despite the fact that Pontevedra was once the main Galician port, at present the tiny Pontevedra harbour is only used for recreational purposes, not for cargo or passenger transportation. Neighbouring Marín is a major military and commercial harbour 7 km away.”

Wikipedia which is really quite interesting. 

Here’s what their official government page says, via google translate from Galician into English:

“Accessibility

The integrating city. 

That was one of the main goals of urban reform, which is practically achieved throughout the public space of Pontevedra. Starting from a global approach, accessibility to facilitate an independent life for everyone was a fundamental axis of the whole transformation.If the barrier-free work is for those who find it more difficult to walk (wheelchair users, older people, moms and dads with baby strollers, etc.), it also works for everyone else, who runs between ramps and stairs. they often use ramps.

Testing the works

In the first phase of urban reform, when the technicians were still not very familiar with the features of these works, it was the members of the Friendship association who tested the result before receiving it as fit. Thus, unique ramps and platforms, which make life easier for so many people, have a very resolute resolution.

Illuminated

In addition to the configuration of the street or square, public lighting is of primary importance, especially when thinking of the elderly or those with some type of visual difficulty. The lighting has been enhanced throughout the city, both in strictly pedestrian and mixed-use spaces. At some points, light intensities on pedestrian crossings have been enhanced.

Accessible trails

The city is the epicenter of several trails accessible to anyone who has or wants to use a few wheels to get around. All departing from the capital, except for the Gafos River, are wheeled. Both the Mirador and the Alameda parks as well as the Senda do Lérez and those that make up the Xunqueira de Alba water complex can be covered from start to finish in good accessibility conditions. Likewise, all the coastal walk between the city and the river (axis Buenos Aires - Uruguay - Corbaceiras - Av. De Marín) can be crossed without any impediment.”

Back to the Guardian article:

I'm sorry. But this is fucking funny.