The Plataforma Alacant en Bici has proposed to the main political formations that are running in the municipal elections on Sunday 28 a decalogue of proposals aimed at reducing motorized traffic in Alicante, creating routes suitable for cycling. According to their spokespersons, both the PSPV and Unides Podem and Compromís have stated that they agree with the ten points. The Popular Party stated that it supported "many" of the measures included in the document, although without specifying them.
- Coastal Front, yes. The first proposal is a clamor in the city and, in fact, parties of one sign and another have been including it in their electoral programs for years. Even the PP proposed in 2015 to create the longest coastal promenade in Europe, connecting, as requested by the decalogue of Alacant by Bike, connecting the city from the Postiguet beach to the Albufereta beach, and extending the bike lane that reaches the European Intellectual Property Agency (EUIPO) with Paya del Saladar and Urbanova.
This great coastal cycling axis would promote sustainable mobility and enhance the tourist attraction of the coastline, which now occupies a busy national highway.
-Bicycle Office. According to the platform, the cities that are committed to sustainable mobility have a specific technical team to develop the actions to be carried out. By creating a specific department for bicycle mobility that favors citizen participation, the city would advance with a defined strategy.
- La Gran Vía. According to the document, the current cycling route of the Gran Vía "is an obstacle course that combines sidewalk cycling, street cycling, sections through parks, segregated bike lanes, multiple crossings from one side of the road to the other sidewalk, which means accumulating minutes and danger for those who dare to walk it". It would be about turning the Gran Vía into the most efficient and fastest cycling connection in the city due to its value in connecting neighborhoods. Where to start? Due to its characteristics, the document advocates notably improving the section at the height of the University Hospital.
- A great biker ring. The area inside the Gran Vía requires a large cyclist axis that allows connecting, from Avenida de Dénia, the neighborhoods of El Plà, Carolinas, the green and sports areas of Mount Tossal, the San Blas neighborhood and closing, through the Gran Via, to San Gabriel. At present, Avenida de Dénia, the exit from the city towards Valencia and the A-7, hardly allows bicycles to circulate in some sections and gives absolute priority to motorized traffic.
- Industrial estates.
Thousands of people from Alicante go to work every day in the industrial estates located on the outskirts, none of which have safe access by bicycle.
- Contra-hand lanes.
It would be about extending the example that already exists on Avenida de Niza, in Playa de San Juan. According to the platform, "it is one of the strategies that Paris has used the most to become a benchmark cycling city, a low-cost option that makes it possible to significantly increase the efficiency of connections between cycling routes".
- Yield the bicyclist right of way.
This low cost measure allows, where indicated, to turn right once the right-of-way has been yielded. Alacant en Bici ensures that this signal has been adopted in multiple cities that are committed to sustainable mobility.
- Bicycle parking
The current map of bike racks in Alicante ignores most of the city's neighborhoods and the main areas of public attraction: leisure areas, beaches, shops, schools and health centers, monuments... It is not possible to extend the use of the bicycle if users do not have adequate places to leave them while they carry out their daily activities.
- Safe school routes.
There are very few schools in Alicante that today it is possible to reach by a safe route, both on foot and by bicycle, and where the bike can be easily and safely parked.
- Finally, the platform recalls that Alicante has a current mobility plan that includes important cycling measures and itineraries that have not been applied in some of its main avenues, such as Aguilera, Benito Pérez Galdós or Alfonso X El Sabio.
