People who live in the city live it, people (specially rich people) who drives from outside the city hate it.

Yes I think one thing is kinda missing in this setup. The public transport in Barcelona is absolutely excellent. But there's no great way to get into it from the outside if you come by car.

Most cities I know have Park & Ride facilities at the outskirts near ring roads. Barcelona doesn't seem to have these (though perhaps I'm missing them as I don't own a car).

But I know my colleagues who come from outside are always struggling to find a parking spot, and they tell me there is no P&R.

That's a choice dense cities have to make. Is the city primarily a place where outsiders come to do business, or is it a place where its residents live? If the latter, then you don't want to make coming by car too easy, or you get too much traffic that makes the quality of life worse.

Park & Ride is something that rarely makes economic sense. If you have a location with good public transport connections to the city, you probably want to build housing there. Alternate uses of the land – and parking in particular – are less valuable. Because people don't want to pay the market price for the land for parking, Park & Ride only works with heavy subsidies. The subsidies are usually implicit and implemented via zoning regulations, because taxpayers would revolt instantly against explicit subsidies.

I would argue Park & Ride just doesn't really work in most circumstances. As a commuter, you get twice the stress - a car trip (including the anxiety of leaving your vehicle in public places for extended periods) AND a public transport ride.

It does work for tourists and other occasional visitors, but then the challenge is to make them aware it is an option when they plan the trip.

The problem is a bunch of place introduce traffic limitations or some congestion tax...

But then do nothing else! You have to find an alternative for people to not take their car (closer grocery shop for instance).

Meanwhile the money goes to some pension fund for underperforming, unionized municipal workers...

But there's many supermarkets in the city! I have about 10 of them within 10 minutes walking. Several smaller ones within 1 minute.

I see, it's not smarter than here.