A cidade que expulsou os carros (The city that removed its cars)
QECR B2363 palavras
In 1999 the new mayor of Pontevedra, a city of some eighty thousand people in the north-west of Spain, did something that was widely described at the time as electoral suicide: he took the cars out of the old town. Not gradually, and not as an experiment. Parking spaces on the surface were removed, through traffic was sent around the centre, and streets that had been used as car parks for thirty years were given back to whoever wanted to stand in them.
The reaction was what you would expect. Shopkeepers predicted ruin. Drivers complained that the city had been made unusable for anyone who worked outside it. Newspapers published photographs of empty streets and asked who was supposed to shop there.
What happened next is the part that is usually told badly, in both directions. The centre did not die: pedestrian traffic rose and most of the shops that had predicted ruin are still open. But the city did not become a paradise either. Some businesses that depended on people parking at the door did close. Families with a car still own a car; they park it and walk the last five minutes. The city built car parks on the edge of the centre, which is not the same thing as being car-free, whatever the headlines say.
Two numbers are quoted more than any others. The city says that traffic in the centre fell by around two thirds, and that for years there has not been a single death in a traffic accident inside the urban area. The second figure is the one that travels around the world, and it should be treated with a little care: comparing raw death counts between cities with very different populations and traffic patterns can be misleading.
Still, the interesting lesson is not about numbers. Pontevedra did not wait for everyone to agree. It is often said that this kind of change has to be gradual, so that people get used to it; what happened there suggests the opposite, that a change made all at once is judged on how it works, while a change made slowly is judged every single day on how it feels.
Palavras que talvez não conheças
- mayorpresidente da câmara
- through traffictrânsito de passagem
- shopkeepercomerciante, lojista
- to predict ruinprever a ruína
- pedestrian trafficcirculação de peões
- headlinemanchete, título
- figurenúmero, dado
- gradualgradual
Perguntas
Respondem-se com o texto à frente. Não é memória: é perceber.
What did the mayor of Pontevedra do in 1999?
He removed cars from the old town all at once — E o texto insiste no como: NOT gradually, and NOT as an experiment. Esse pormenor é o que sustenta o final.
According to the text, all the shops that predicted ruin closed.
False — Falso: a maioria continua aberta. Mas o texto também não diz que não fechou nenhuma: fecharam as que viviam de estacionar à porta.
How should a reader handle the two numerical claims?
Attribute them to the city and examine the limits of comparison. — O texto atribui os números à cidade e adverte sobre comparar contagens brutas; não comprova verificação própria.
Why does the writer say the figure about traffic deaths should be treated with care?
Cities’ raw totals are not directly comparable — Não põe em causa o dado: alerta que comparar números absolutos entre cidades de dimensões e trânsito diferentes pode induzir em erro.
The text says Pontevedra is a city without cars.
False — Falso, e desmente-o de propósito: as famílias continuam a ter carro, estacionam-no e andam os últimos cinco minutos. Há parques na periferia, o que NÃO é o mesmo que não ter carros, «diga o que disser a manchete».
What is the writer's final argument about how change should be made?
Abrupt change is judged by results, slow change by feelings — O último parágrafo nomeia a ideia comum —que a mudança deve ser gradual— para a contrariar: o que é de repente julga-se pelo que funciona; o lento, todos os dias pelo que se sente.