After the most dramatic final in ages, this is the winners comment..
Naomi Osaka: "I am going to differ from your question, I am sorry. I know everyone was cheering for her and I am sorry it has to end like this. I just want to say thank you for watching the match. "My mum sacrificed a lot to me. It means a lot for her to come and watch my matches because she doesn't normally do that! "All we are missing is my dad but he doesn't physically watch my matches - he walks around. So I will see him later! "It was always my dream to play Serena in the US Open finals so I am really glad I was able to do that. I am really grateful I could play with you. Thank you!"
Listen to live US Open tennis commentary - Serena Williams v Naomi Osaka - BBC Sport
People don’t shout in Pontevedra – or they shout less. With all but the most essential traffic banished, there are no revving engines or honking horns, no metallic snarl of motorbikes or the roar of people trying make themselves heard above the din – none of the usual soundtrack of a Spanish city... Lores became mayor after 12 years in opposition, and within a month had pedestrianised all 300,000 sq m of the medieval centre, paving the streets with granite flagstones. “The historical centre was dead,” he says. “There were a lot of drugs, it was full of cars – it was a marginal zone. It was a city in decline, polluted, and there were a lot of traffic accidents. It was stagnant. Most people who had a chance to leave did so. At first we thought of improving traffic conditions but couldn’t come up with a workable plan. Instead we decided to take back the public space for the residents and to do this we decided to get rid of cars.”
They stopped cars crossing the city and got rid of street parking, as people looking for a place to park is what causes the most congestion. They closed all surface car parks in the city centre and opened underground ones and others on the periphery, with 1,686 free places. They got rid of traffic lights in favour of roundabouts, extended the car-free zone from the old city to the 18th-century area, and used traffic calming in the outer zones to bring the speed limit down to 30km/h. The benefits are numerous. On the same streets where 30 people died in traffic accidents from 1996 to 2006, only three died in the subsequent 10 years, and none since 2009. CO2 emissions are down 70%, nearly three-quarters of what were car journeys are now made on foot or by bicycle, and, while other towns in the region are shrinking, central Pontevedra has gained 12,000 new inhabitants. Also, withholding planning permission for big shopping centreshas meant that small businesses – which elsewhere have been unable to withstand Spain’s prolonged economic crisis – have managed to stay afloat.
'For me, this is paradise': life in the Spanish city that banned cars | Cities | The Guardian
For Walking the City week – exploring all aspects of urban walking, good and bad – writers tell us where they walk and why.
‘Would that all journeys were on foot’: writers on the joy of walking | Cities | The Guardian