النص
The City That Said No to Cars
Imagine a city centre where children walk to school on their own, older people sit and chat in the middle of the street, and the loudest sound is people talking. This is not a dream. It is Pontevedra, a small city in Galicia, in the north-west of Spain.
In the 1990s, Pontevedra's old streets were full of cars. Traffic jams were common, the air was dirty and the centre felt noisy and unwelcoming. In 1999, a new mayor, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, decided to try something radical: he began to remove cars from the historic centre.
The change happened step by step. Streets were turned into pedestrian areas, and most parking spaces in the centre disappeared. Delivery vans can still come in, but only at certain times, and residents can drive to their own garages. Car parks were built on the edge of the centre, and speed limits were lowered in the rest of the city.
Not everyone was happy at first. Some shop owners were afraid that customers would stop coming if they couldn't park outside. Over time, however, the streets filled with people on foot, and supporters of the plan say that people who walk tend to stop, look in windows and come back more often.
Today, city planners from many countries visit Pontevedra or use it as an example. Visitors notice how quiet it is and how safe the streets feel for children. The centre has also become a place where families want to live again.
Of course, what works in a small city may not work everywhere. Bigger cities need good public transport, and some people, such as older or disabled residents, still need to travel by car. But Pontevedra shows that streets don't have to belong to cars. They can belong to people.