{"id":138519,"date":"2025-03-26T09:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T07:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/barcelona-has-the-highest-density-of-cars-in-the-eu-cutting-traffic-by-25-could-save-200-lives\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T09:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T07:10:17","slug":"barcelona-has-the-highest-density-of-cars-in-the-eu-cutting-traffic-by-25-could-save-200-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/barcelona-has-the-highest-density-of-cars-in-the-eu-cutting-traffic-by-25-could-save-200-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona has the highest density of cars in the EU \u2013 Cutting traffic by 25% could save 200 lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138519\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Reducing traffic in Barcelona by 25% would prevent around 200 premature deaths a year linked to pollution, study finds. From superblocks to port electrification plans, Barcelona\u2019s traffic pollution is slowly improving. Reducing traffic in Barcelona by 25 per cent would prevent 200 premature deaths a year, according to a new study.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish city has the highest density of cars in the EU at almost 6,000 vehicles per square kilometre. Cutting down on combustion engines is no mean feat, but new research from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) shows the life-saving difference it would make. Barcelona\u2019s air quality improved in 2024 for the second year in a row, thanks to a series of polluting-cutting policies, the city\u2019s air pollution monitoring network said in January.<\/p>\n<p>Some progress is already being made but ISG\u2019s research imagines a full implementation of the 2018-2024 Urban Mobility Plan launched under former mayor Ada Colau. \u201cThis study focuses on Barcelona, but it also sets an example for other cities to understand the impact that targeted policies can have on reducing air pollution,\u201d says Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, director of ISGlobal&#8217;s Climate, Air Pollution, Nature and Urban Health programme.<\/p>\n<p><em>How would cutting cars save lives in Barcelona<\/em><br \/>\nThe researchers worked with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputaci\u00f3n (BSC-CNS), which has developed a technology to model traffic emissions throughout the city and subsequent pollution levels. From a baseline set in 2019, they worked out three hypothetical scenarios, each with different levels of traffic reduction.<\/p>\n<p>The first simulation removed the most polluting vehicles from the roads but didn\u2019t reduce the overall number of private vehicles in the city. This led to a 5.9 per cent drop in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels &#8211; a gas which increases the risk of respiratory illnesses. According to the researchers\u2019 model, this would prevent 67 premature deaths a year.<\/p>\n<p>Under the second scenario, a 25 per cent reduction in the number of private cars on the road would result in a 17.6 per cent reduction in NO2 levels, preventing 199 deaths per year. Most of the people affected by this change live in the city centre &#8211; the area with the highest pollution levels &#8211; as well as areas to the north-west.<\/p>\n<p><em>What difference would electrifying the port make?<\/em><br \/>\nBarcelona\u2019s busy ports are a significant source of pollution too, with maritime traffic contributing around 7 per cent of NO2-related mortality in the city. The Port of Barcelona is planning to electrify its docks by 2030, and ISG\u2019s third scenario looked at the impact of this development alongside a 25 per cent cut in private road traffic. The result was a 19.4 per cent reduction in NO2 levels and 228 fewer preventable deaths per year.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/green\/2025\/03\/25\/barcelona-has-the-highest-density-of-cars-in-the-eu-cutting-traffic-by-25-could-save-200-l\">Euronews Green<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/vaufien\/154677\/\">Barcelona has the highest density of cars in the EU \u2013 Cutting traffic by 25% could save 200 lives<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[4450,18345,606,607,608],"class_list":["post-138519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-barcelona","tag-trafic","tag-vau_viikkokatsaus","tag-vauen","tag-vaufien"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}