If you don't listen to/read 99% Invisible, you're missing out. Fascinating podcast mostly on design and architecture.

I thought this recent article might be interesting to some of you, given the general disdain for superblocks on this forum.

http://99percentinvisible.org/article/civic-superblocks-barcelonas-urban-redesign-returns-streets-residents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+99pi+%2899%25+Invisible%29

I read about that recently. It's awesome to see cities being progressive in reducing the impact of automobiles on daily life.

The disdain for superblocks in OKC comes from having one tenant on one giant block like the Cox center. The OKC superblock forces folks to go a long distance to reach the next destination which alienates the pedestrian and discourages street life. The Barcelona superblock is still made up of a tight grid of 9 city blocks full of buildings and residents. Barcelona is just moving the heavy traffic to specific city streets and leaving the interior streets safe for walking, biking, playing, etc.

Thanks for sharing, Chase - that was really interesting! It's quite alarming when you consider how much space and how many resources are taken up by cars and things for cars.

That is really interesting. My only question would be is the ultimate goal to also reduce the amount of vehicles on the roads? If not it would seem like this would drive up the traffic/noise, etc. on the perimeter of the superblocks.

Superblocks & walkability:

Barcelona ((39.2 sq mi): Population - 1,604,555 density (41,000/sq mi). Amazing that Spain's 2nd largest city would even attempt to do something of this magnitude. Very interesting article...