A report from the Mobility Service of the Valencia City Council on the reorganization of traffic on Calle Colón due to its opening from Porta de la Mar considers that it is not "convenient" to increase the number of buses on the section of Calle de la Paz between Marqués de Dos Aguas and Plaza la Reina, as well as the consequent authorization of two lanes in this part and the traffic light regulation at the intersection of San Vicente Street and Plaza de la Reina.
The Valencia City Council led by Mayor María José Catalá (PP) presented at the end of October a restructuring that modifies seven bus lines of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) to "expand direct connections" with the city center, while opening a bus lane on Colón Street to general traffic.
The Mobility report made public this Tuesday by the socialist spokesperson in the council, Sandra Gómez, indicates that, in the event that, on the municipal side, the measure is adopted to widen the road to two lanes in the La Paz section, It will be "necessary" to carry out actions to replace the structural pavement and the pavement, as well as to reinforce service channels and modify manholes and manhole covers, "to guarantee the stability of the elements of the road infrastructure to the increase in road traffic. buses raised".
The Mobility Service warns in the document that it is "totally inadvisable" not to carry out these actions and to provide, based on the current state, an additional lane for road traffic since "in this way, in a period of less than two months, The sidewalks affected by bus traffic would be greatly deteriorated" and would cause "serious functionality and safety problems" for users.
In view of this report, Gómez has indicated, in statements to the media before the November municipal plenary session, that his criticism of Catalá's plans to remodel the EMT lines so that these bus lines pass through this section are not "neither sectarian nor capricious" but "reasoned and founded."
Thus, he considers that his warnings regarding the proposed change "are no longer said by the PSOE, but by the Mobility Service: the remodeling of the lines that Catalá has proposed is not viable" since it is not viable "to divert all the lines of the EMT for San Vicente if we want San Vicente to continue being the street it is today."
For her part, the deputy trustee of Compromís, Papi Robles, has told the media, in relation to this report, that Catalá is "passing by" the City Council's technicians and has asked herself "how they will explain what they are going to do." do".
Faced with these criticisms, Carbonell, asked about the report, has indicated, also in statements to the media before the plenary session, that the document refers "to one of the alternative solutions for the arrival of buses to the center of València", which He has stressed that "it is going to be executed" because it is one of the electoral promises of his party, the PP, and "one of the needs that the neighborhood and fundamentally also, especially the northern districts and the northern neighborhoods, have claimed for us." .
Along these lines, he has pointed out that, to execute it, there are "several alternatives" in the last stretch of La Paz street. One of them, he said, is "to do nothing, let the only lane that exists in its last section then go along San Vicente Street", an option in which "there would be no problem, not even according to that report".
The second alternative is that of two lanes in the last section and that the buses run in the right lane, on the part where the flower pots are currently located, which is the one that the document questions due to the problems on the pavement. .
And he pointed out that there is another alternative, which is that the buses "run along the road, as they have been running, and it is only the vehicles that enter the Plaza de la Reina to join the parking lot that run on that part of the pavement that is not would bear the load" of public transportation.
In another order of things, the Plenary Session approved this Tuesday in ordinary session, with the votes in favor of PP and Vox and the votes against of PSOE and Compromís, the general and consolidated budget of the corporation, its autonomous organizations and municipal companies. and the staff for the year 2024, which amounts to 1,116.9 million euros, that is, 7.11% more than the previous year.
During the political debate, the first deputy mayor and Councilor for Finance and Budgets, María José Ferrer San Segundo, highlighted that “this is a record figure to comply with the commitments to citizens which, in addition, contemplates the largest tax reduction of the history of the City Council and, all of this, with a budget without cuts, which amortizes debt and responds to the needs of the city."
