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| My street before the facelift. |
I’ve only recently begun to explore the possibilities of the
fantastic bus system in Valencia. Up until now I’ve effected almost all of my
transportation by bicycle, which means that I have avoided certain pedestrian
unfriendly streets in the city. These mainly consist of a few major
thoroughfares that have lots of high-speed car traffic (often way over the
legal limit) and where there is no safe place to ride a bike. Most of these
same race tracks are also horrible places to walk as the sidewalks are barely
adequate for two people to pass each other without one pedestrian being forced
to turn sideways.
I ventured out last weekend to take the bus that passes directly in
front of my building and circles the city in a sort of inner loop—my first time
ever. I was extremely familiar with much of the route of this bus line as I
follow it on my bike rides where there are bike paths. After living here for so
long and spending so much time exploring on my bike I feel that I know the city
better than most natives. I have a few gaps in my knowledge of Valencia
because, as I said, I respect my health too much to venture in the areas where
bikes are obviously very unwelcome.
It turns out that I haven’t missed anything by avoiding these
streets because they are tremendously ugly and soul-crushing examples of what
happens when a city places the automobile before humans. Until my little bus
outing, I always felt that Valencia was an extremely beautiful city. It is. I
was absolutely shocked by these pockets of inhumanity. It was like I had
traveled to some bleak, Stalinist dystopia in the short bus ride from my home
on a bright and palm-lined street.
Only a
few years ago the street where I live was one of these soulless areas fit only
for automobile traffic. I remember thinking of this street as a sort of Berlin
Wall that demarcated the outer limit of my neighborhood. As a cyclist or
pedestrian, the street was extremely uninviting—hostile, even—and I would turn
back and return to the relative refuge of the more tranquil areas where I
didn’t feel I was being preyed upon by cars and trucks.
Like much of my neighborhood, this street got a complete make-over
beginning in 2008. The six lane racetrack became four lanes with a tree row in
the median strip and a bike lane on one side. Traffic was tamed to legal speeds
and the street became a much more inviting place for pedestrians, to say
nothing of the aesthetic improvements (compare the two photographs and you
decide).
Of course, like with any issue there are two sides. There are some
who fight against anything they feel infringes upon the right of cars to travel
at high speeds and without any hindrance from pesky human beings who might
stumble into their pat. Leading that charge is one
local newspaper’s war against pedestrians and cyclists. This is the same
newspaper that complained that no one used the new city center bike ring which
is completely laughable to anyone who rides on this path. This fucking rag’s
war has been relentless as they fight against pedestrians, cyclists,
sustainability, and the environment.
Luckily for the city, the forces of good are prevailing, at least for
the moment. We have a new mayor who has been a bike commuter for years and is
determined to make the city more livable while at the same time more beautiful.
As an American I can say to the people of Valencia that I have witnessed first-hand
the results of making the automobile the center of all urban planning and I
wouldn’t recommend it.
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| My street today. |
