The commons are fully determined to protect the government work of former mayor Ada Colau. And yesterday afternoon, in the Mobility commission of Barcelona City Council, in light of the highly controversial Via Augusta bike lane, they tried to put the executive of socialist mayor Jaume Collboni in a bind. But Laia Bonet, the deputy mayor of Urban Planning, also responsible for the municipal mobility area, resisted the challenges of BComú councilor Guille López.
López made a request to extract from the municipal government the commitment that it will keep the bike lane in question as it is. In reality, these types of requests are made mainly to force the executive to make his position clear. Do you want to be the first progressive deputy mayor to start dismantling bike lanes? the common councilor, the former spokesperson for the Eixample Respira citizen platform, came to ask. “Do you want to be like those of the PP and those of Vox?” López added. “What we should be doing is considering where to make more bike lanes, especially in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasí district. The health of citizens is at stake.” According to López, the dilemma is clear, the municipal government has to choose between “a green Barcelona or a highway conglomerate.”
Deputy Mayor Bonet, however, did not give up and reminded Councilor López that the City Council is currently studying the consequences of the implementation of this infrastructure on Via Augusta, and is not doing so only on this road, but also in the surrounding areas, and not at a single moment, but during the months of September, October and November.
“You are asking us to preserve this bike lane while we are still evaluating it,” the head of Mobility added in her response, somewhat incredulous at the request. This infrastructure was launched in different phases and it did so raising a lot of noise, both among its supporters and detractors. We will not make any decision until we have the corresponding reports. “Then we will see if we make any improvements or take any other measures.”
