LAST week, my wife and I were in Spain. To American eyes, Barcelona's landscape is very foreign: grand avenues, busy plazas and tree-shaded residential neighborhoods surrounding an old ''Gothic Quarter'' of narrow, cobblestone streets. A city built for walking
The ancient city center is made for foot traffic. The narrow streets -- sometimes only 6 feet wide -- guarantee cool morning and afternoon shade. When the sun is high enough to pierce their pleasant gloom, everybody sensibly goes home for siesta.
The vast checkerboard of streets and boulevards surrounding the old city was laid out in the 1860s. It relied on new technology: street cars and subway trains. The industrial revolution's factories sparked a population boom, but because of public transportation people could commute to work. Broad sidewalks and ramblas -- what we'd call pedestrian malls -- with open-air cafes, kiosks and refreshment stands served a walking public, and still do.
Although cars, buses, motorcycles and mopeds now jam the streets, clutter the sidewalks and curbs and generate a pall of air pollution, the city is fighting back. It has closed whole neighborhoods to motor vehicles, restricted parking and imposed a complicated system of one-way streets. Public transportation by bus and train remains first class and Barcelona is still a city for pedestrians. For people.
Back in Honolulu, I see our car-choked streets and deserted sidewalks in a new light.