When it comes to achieving better cities for people, a BIG challenge is how little space we have for public life, given the space we’ve surrendered to cars. Barcelona’s “superblocks” show what we can fit if we took some space back. Video by Melissa & Chris Bruntlett

My favourite kind of “traffic!” A school “bike bus” planned each Friday in Barcelona a few years back, grew from an initial 5 kids when it started. Safety in numbers — do you think you could do this in your city? Via @lljunca. See you soon, Barcelona.

Central Barcelona is a bit of a duality. Some big streets feel like the car is still king. Many others are pedestrianized or have recently been redesigned to put people first. It feels like smart progress, but the city seems to still be debating what it wants to be. Comments?

This is amazing. The City of Barcelona eliminated 3 lanes of vehicle traffic & converted the street into a 4.7km green pedestrian corridor in the heart of the Eixample grid. Businesses sued. They eventually won. But then the businesses said they like it.

A key sign of a livable city are plenty of playgrounds. A bonus is seeing busy playgrounds at night! Part of Barcelona’s Plaça de les Glòries major urban regeneration area called “22@”, one of Europe’s largest. That’s Jean Nouvel’s tower in the background. Our boys loved it!

Barcelona has metro, trams, buses, bike-lanes, & walkable sit-able streets. They also have these, electric “trackless trams,” which are smooth-riding buses that look like trams (which are considered cooler so it might help with ridership). I admit, they are pretty cool. Thoughts?

Libraries are powerful place-makers, and I love tweeting about great new central libraries that open in cities. But former Barcelona Mayor @Joanclos told me during his time in office, they opened 20+ community-level library branches like this in Gràcia! That’s community-building!

@Joanclos @fundarquisoc I can’t help but think about how so many cities absolutely AGONIZE over the idea of turning a single street into a pedestrian zone & people-place, while thriving communities like Gràcia in Barcelona are filled with so many streets & squares with no cars, or at most “tamed” cars.”

@Joanclos @fundarquisoc “A fully-implemented #SuperBlocks strategy across Barcelona’s Eixample urban pattern would mean 163 new public squares, and 1.7 billion € saved each year in public health costs” argues Salvador Rueda, the concept’s originator. Thanks for the tour & chat today! Thoughts, Tweeps?

@Joanclos @fundarquisoc Every kid should be able to safely bike to school without the benefit of “safety in numbers.” But until then, “bike buses” are a brilliant idea! Thanks to Barcelona’s @bicibuseixample for inviting @renee_dsc, our kiddos & I along for the ride to school this morning. #xarxabicibus

@Joanclos @fundarquisoc @bicibuseixample @Renee_dsc It’s the DETAILS that make #Barcelona such a civilized city for people. Details like PLENTY of: - benches & tables - kids playgrounds - water fountains - garbage cans (clean streets) - public washrooms - squares & people-places - pedestrian & low-car streets - low speed limits

Barcelona has a track-record of big city-building moves that transform the public realm, and public life. On Passeig de Sant Joan, they turned car lanes into a pedestrian and green corridor, widening sidewalks from 12.5 to 17 metres, saving/adding trees, benches, playgrounds etc.

Barcelona isn’t great because it’s old, although that helps. Barcelona is great because of decisions that have been made to fuel a vibrant public life through great streets, squares & places for people. Cities can add public life now, as Montreal, New York, Paris etc have shown.

A city can’t really be said to embrace public life without delivering a lot of great places for kids & families. Playgrounds shouldn’t feel like a special thing — they should be a common piece of the public realm almost everywhere you look. That’s what it feels like in Barcelona.