Is mobility changing in the center of Valencia after the changes gradually introduced by the new local government? The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, charged this Tuesday against the decision of city councils such as those of València, Elx, Logroño or Valladolid for reversing actions in favor of sustainable mobility, such as bike lanes, taking into account ideological and partisan issues. "This does not happen in any country of the European Union, except in Spain and it has a name, it is called a partisan coalition between PP and Vox, it is called introducing the denialist extreme right into governments," he said at the press conference after the holding of the Council of Ministers.
Some statements that caused a tug of war on social networks with the mayor of València, María José Catalá, who encouraged him to visit the city and see "with his own eyes" that no bike lanes have been reversed despite the changes introduced (the commitment to cycle streets) in some neighborhood of the city recognized by the City Council in official press releases.
Yesterday, the mayor insisted that the minister "has bad information" and that "no bike lane has been touched." The PP leader added that the regulations regarding the Low Emission Zone are being applied and working to improve public transport lines. Of course, she admitted that an audit has been requested on the safety of some bike lanes.
In the midst of this Twitter brawl - a space where the minister moves with ease - the PSPV took the opportunity yesterday to release data on vehicle circulation in the center of Valencia. At a press conference, the socialist spokesperson in the City Council, Sandra Gómez, pointed out that the vehicle passage data published by the Department of Mobility “confirm that the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, was right: Catalá's mobility policies have In just a few months, private vehicle traffic through the center has skyrocketed, while at the same time they have caused a decrease in the use of sustainable vehicles such as bicycles or scooters.”
Socialist councilor María Pérez broke down the increase in private traffic that has occurred in the main streets of the city center "as a consequence of the decisions and messages from Catalá to facilitate the passage of private cars." In this sense, she explained that the flow of cars on the first section of Colón Street has skyrocketed by 54% in January compared to the same period of the previous year. Likewise, traffic has also grown by 20% on Calle de la Paz, 11% on Pintor Sorolla and 25% on Calle Lauria in the same period.
“When measures are taken to facilitate the flow of private vehicles through downtown streets, the private vehicle responds and occupies the space. To better visualize what Catalá has done with its changes: 2,500 more cars pass through Colón each day, 1,700 more pass through Calle de la Paz, and 1,000 more in Lauria,” he explained.
Some data that Compromís has already released, in absolute terms, to counter the municipal thesis that with the changes introduced - the opening of Colón Street and the recovery of public transport from the EMT to the Town Hall Square - traffic in the center had been reduced. Councilor Giuseppe Grezzi, with data on the average intensity of vehicle traffic collected on the City Council's own website, confirmed "a global increase in traffic on all roads."
Thus, comparing the data for January 2024 with those for 2023, both in Colón (which goes from 4,774 to 7,335 vehicles at its beginning, and from 10,774 to 11,372 at its mouth), and in La Paz (from 8,580 to 10,287), Poeta Querol (from 7,773 to 7,846), Xàtiva (from 19,643 to 26,267), Lauria (from 4,024 to 5,047) or Hernán Cortés (from 3,301 to 3,800); In all the streets directly affected by the changes, traffic has increased, they explained in Compromís.
A few days before, the City Council had defended the opposite thesis. But to do so, the council had compared the first fortnight of November 2022 and the first fortnight of 2024 (from November 6 to 17, 2022 and from January 8 to 19, 2024), understanding that they were "two periods of comparable time in terms of the circumstances of circulation". In this comparison, traffic was reduced on Poeta Querol Street by more than 1,900 vehicles per day and on the main stretch of the Marqués del Túria road it registered a decrease of 19.3%.
In the comparison of the months of January (2023 and 2024), that reduction in Marqués del Túria was just 0.2%, going from 58,236 vehicles to 58,070.
