For mobility our main objective was to find strategies to reduce the CO2 emission produced by cars circulating searching for a parking space.Our first step was to map street parking and garage parking (both private and public), and compared this to the building usage and density of the area. Then based on the mapping we made a zoning map of the neighborhood. Trying to be specific enough to tackle the problems and at the same time as general as possible to apply this strategy to the rest of Barcelona.
It came down to three main zones which we named the RED, BLUE and GREEN zone. The RED ZONE – Has a relatively low density and a very high level of visible parking. The reasons include the lack of regulated parking spaces and as a result of overcrowding in other zones people leave their car here as it is a cheap (or free) alternative to an indoor car park. Proposal – Make it a low emission zone for hybrid or electric cars to park, build new car parks for inhabitants and force out all cars that do not belong in the area.
The BLUE ZONE – Has a medium density for both inhabitants and cars. However street parking is at full capacity as there is a lack of space on the small streets. Therefore many people park their cars in other zones such as the overcrowded red zone. Proposal –There are plenty of parking garages with vacant spaces, so the strategy would be to move all excess cars into the vacant parking spaces in the car parks / garages to ensure all cars have a permanent location. Although in several circumstances we want to use sensors to efficiently allocate parking, it would be preferred that everyone with a car has a fixed and private location, this is an optimal way to organize parking.
The GREEN ZONE – Has a high density and medium to high level of parking. This zone is similar to the Blue Zone as there are many free parking spaces available in the car parks. The difference is in the level of use and density, as in a great deal of the “Cerda Plan”, the ground floor is used for commercial purposes like small scale local shops.Proposal – Again remove permanent parking into car parks and leave the street parking during the week for short term parking only as to promote local shops and at the same time the local economy
After this we implemented the strategy onto the entire city, in which we found that there would need to be several extra zones (for example the industrial area to the west). However, for the majority we believe this could be a great strategy to make parking more efficient in Barcelona.
