side. Speed limits have also been reduced to 20 km/h initially. It was estimated that this could be implemented city-wide for less than €20 million, simply by changing traffic signals. It is planned to further reduce speeds to 10 km/h and remove on-street parking by building more off-street car parks. This is intended to make the internal streets safer for pedestrians and create more space for playing games, sports, and cultural activities such as outdoor cinemas. The concept was initially spurred by a redesign of the city's bus network that consolidated bus routes into a simpler orthogonal network, with more frequent services. With many streets freed from buses as a result, and the idea was formulated to create the superilles in order to reduce traffic, cut the high levels of air and noise pollution in the city, and reallocate space to pedestrians and cyclists. The superilles have been met with criticism and resistance from some residents, who have complained about the dramatically increased distance for some previously short car trips, and the increased traffic on the arterial perimeter roads. The adaptation of the Barcelona superblock concept has been explored for other cities. Superblocks in Japan Superblocks have been the prevalent mode of urban land use planning in Japan, even being described as the "sine qua non of Japanese urban design", present in all medium to large Japanese cities to a greater or lesser degree. Cities are typically arranged around a system of wide arterial roads, often approximating a grid and flanked by generous sidewalks, and an orthogonal network of narrow internal streets, normally operating as shared zones with no sidewalks. The grid plan layout of Japanese cities such as Kyoto and Nara dates back to the eighth century, which were in turn derived from Chinese grid models. The system of superblocks were created mostly in the early to mid 20th century by physically widening arterial roads, superimposing the supergrid and superblock structure in a physical sense. This contrasts with the Barcelona model wherein the superblock model was imposed through changed traffic signalling rather than physical street widening. They further contrast to Western auto-centric models described above as they are typically characterised by highly walkable and cycle-able street networks, featuring high-density mixed use development and supported by highly effective and efficient public transport systems. Resulting largely from planning controls which link building height with street width, Japanese superblocks are typically characterised