Upper Žižkov backs a 30 km/h zone, but splits by age over giving up parking for pavement

Praha 3 is moving its next 30 km/h zone a step closer. The district has published the results of a consultation on traffic calming in Upper Žižkov — the area bounded by Seifertova, Táboritská, Ondříčkova, Slavíkova, U Rajské zahrady and Siwiecova — and 71.1 percent of respondents supported the zone, against 23.6 percent opposed. Works are expected in 2027, according to the report in Zdopravy.cz, which carries the town hall's figures and drawings.

The headline number is the easy part. The consultation also asked about specific changes at individual junctions, and that is where the district found real disagreement — about how much kerb space should go to people on foot and how much should stay with parked cars.

Who answered

The survey ran from 24 September to 8 October and drew 263 responses, 179 of them from residents of the affected area. Among residents, support for the zone was slightly higher, at 72.1 percent. Measures to protect pedestrians were rated positively by 67.3 percent of all respondents, changes for cyclists by 56.7 percent.

The town hall itself warns that the survey is not a representative poll of public opinion but "input for further decision-making". That caveat matters: 263 self-selected respondents is a signal of who cared enough to answer, not a referendum.

The corners are the argument

Most of the proposed changes are at junctions: reshaping them and protecting the corners from illegal parking. The widest split was at Bořivojova and Kubelíkova. The option of widening the pavement and replacing angled parking with parallel parking — at a cost of two to three spaces — was backed by 46.4 percent. Keeping the angled bays and adding protective bollards was preferred by 24 percent.

The split by age is stark. Among respondents aged 20 to 29, 67.6 percent rated the wider-pavement option positively; among those over 50, only 26.8 percent did.

At Kubelíkova and Čajkovského the result went the other way in form, if not in spirit: bollards protecting space for pedestrians won 55.1 percent, against 19 percent for painted markings alone. The redesign of the Kubelíkova–Ševčíkova–Krásova junction outside Nemocnice sv. Kříže was rated positively by 67.6 percent, with comments concerned mainly with ambulance access, short-term stopping and step-free access.

In the open answers, the most common complaints were the loss of parking, the look of the flexible bollards and complications for deliveries. Some respondents asked for permanent kerb works or more greenery instead of bollards.

Two projects beyond the zone

The consultation also covered two schemes not directly tied to the speed limit. A rebuild of the junction outside Palác Akropolis — shorter crossings, the carriageway raised to pavement level, and new trees — was rated positively by 67.7 percent. Widening the space for children and pedestrians outside the Jaroslav Seifert primary school on Vlkova, which would remove ten parking spaces, was rated positively by 65.7 percent. The district notes that the surface design shown there is a concept, not a final scheme.

What it adds up to

Praha 3 announced the preparation of this zone last year, when it also finished a 30 km/h zone between Parukářka and Vítkov. The new consultation does not decide anything by itself, but it sets out the trade the district will have to make: a broad majority for slower streets, and a narrower, generational argument about whether the space they free up goes to pavements and trees or stays with cars. The Bořivojova corner, where the pavement option won a plurality rather than a majority, is the one to watch when a final design appears.