IN-PERSON Barcelona Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

In January 2024, the City Council of Barcelona issued a cycling prohibition on 25 of its central streets. This measure intended to reduce conflicts between walking and cycling mobilities and targeted the city’s most touristed streets. Whereas the over-visitation of this area and its bearings on residents’ wellbeing are well studied (e.g., Brandajs & Russo, 2019; Morales-Pérez et al., 2022), this paper investigates the nexus between touristification and other urban change processes, such as mobility transitions and population ageing, all prominently present in the case study city. Conceptually, we develop the argument that tourist mobilities are an emergent ingredient in the mix of active mobility transitions, hindering inclusive access to walking and cycling. Street pacification and regeneration initiatives that arguably represent shifts towards a greener and healthier city have been met with concerns about equity and rising affordability (Immergluck & Balan, 2018; Oscilowicz et al., 2022). In turn, our analysis of 23 go-along interviews with older residents concurs that the transformative power of tourist mobilities curbs the liveability benefits and the inclusiveness of active mobility interventions. We base our contributions on an empirical study with residents aged over 60 who habitually walk and cycle in the tourist centre of Barcelona. Our materials outline the physical effects that directly and indirectly hinder social and caring responsibilities and the maintenance of physical exercise, wellbeing and social ties in later life. We then outline the socio-emotional effects around their sense of place and the erosion of essential services. Lastly, we engage with the embodied responses to the presence of visitor mobilities, showing how residents’ physical and cognitive capabilities are tested and signalling an emergent ‘immobilisation’ that discriminates between the rights of mobile and less mobile urban communities.