Participants in Public Affairs Experts' interactive election questionnaire for LaVan guardia, which has been answered by more than 25,000 users since it went live five weeks ago, indicate more than notable disagreement with the unilateral imposition of measures against the use of the private vehicle in Barcelona, especially if these measures are not accompanied by an improvement in the range of public transport to access and move around the city.
This week, based on the answers recorded in the questionnaire, the opinion of Barcelona residents on transport infrastructure and urban mobility is evaluated through the identification of users of the La Vanguardia website with the opinions expressed by the main candidates for the mayoralty of Barcelona in the elections of May 28. Specifically, the state of opinion is analyzed with respect to three issues: the state of traffic, the new mobility and the expansion of El Prat International Airport.
The survey shows that a little more than a third of Barcelona residents (35.19%) consider that "the effort to reduce pollution and, therefore, traffic must be done well, accompanied by of a gradual improvement in the field of public transport". Also, 24.31% identify with the statement that "mobility must once again be at the service of citizens and the municipal government has decided to wage war on private mobility, ignoring that in many cases it is of compulsory mobility".
The districts with residents who largely share this opinion are those with the highest income in the city: Sarrià-Sant Gervasi and les Corts.
Among the residents of Ciutat Vella, a district where private mobility is already very limited, there is a division of opinion. 30.85% of the participants in La Vanguardia's interactive who live in this district of Barcelona are in agreement with a "green revolution" that involves reducing traffic in the Eixample and aspires for Ciutat Vella to be "free from cars". It is a slightly lower percentage (31.71%) than that of readers in this district who identify with the statement that the fight against air pollution must be accompanied by an improvement in public transport, an opinion shared by a 35.88% of the inhabitants of the Eixample, probably the district where the urban planning measures adopted by the municipal government have a greater impact.
The mobility of the future, which will largely involve the extension of the use of electric vehicles, is also a matter of analysis based on the responses to this interactive blog prepared by Public Affairs Experts. 23.74% of users share the opinion that, if the majority of citizens do not purchase an electric car and continue to use the most polluting private vehicles, it is because of a lack of money and because they do not have a better alternative in public transport . This statement achieves its highest percentages of adherence in Horta-Guinardó, les Corts and Nou Barris. 17.66% believe that trying to transform urban mobility without addressing socio-economic biases is a "classist" attitude and stands out, among the statements that find the most support among the residents of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, the one that says "Colau has converted Barcelona in a Bolivarian theme park and does everything it can think of for propaganda purposes".
The questionnaire opened by La Vanguardia also affects an issue that has generated enormous controversy and that remains unresolved: the expansion of Barcelona airport. One in three respondents considers that it is possible to "be in favor of sustainability and make it compatible with economic growth" and that, therefore, the El Prat expansion project must go in the direction of Barcelona "a more connected city".
A high percentage of users (29.32%) support the statement that the purpose of the expansion should not be to attract more tourists to the city but to generate better economic conditions.
On the other hand, one in three inhabitants of the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district (33.70%) identify above all with the appreciation that a no to the expansion of the airport would mean closing a door "to progress, innovation and development".
