In many cities in our country, the municipal elections are usually announced with the hype and the cymbals of the excavators, in a kind of rave party imposed by the councils. In some, to consolidate mandates. In others, as a sound farewell.
The mayors who are trying to add votes to revalidate the positions organize their concerts to show that they care about improving the city, and no improvement is more visible than the works.
Those who sense that they will not vote for them again seem to strive to exhibit until the last minute their ability to annoy. It is true that they are entitled to the rebecca, at least until the ballot count sends them home. But, since the election is at the end of May, they still have days to show us their displeasure.
They show us this with various intimidating artifacts: metal bars of an insulting ugliness with which they have populated several streets to reduce the lanes or with the wires with which, it seems, they want to protect pedestrians in the neighborhoods they have set up upside down, as happens in some of Barcelona's Eixample or in Palma's Passeig Marítim.
The very laudable ecological concern of those who govern cities has led them to declare war on cars. We already know how harmful the CO₂ emissions from vehicles with gasoline and diesel engines are. That's why those who claim to look after everyone's health, including that of the Earth, fight for electric cars. However, no one has gauged the extent to which battery waste is detrimental to the sustainability of the planet. On the other hand, many people, faced with very ineffective public transport services, have no choice but to go to work in their utility vehicle.
The reduction of the lanes on some streets leads to traffic jams and these multiply the pollution that councils try to avoid with their car restrictions, sometimes quite absurdly.
I wonder, for example, what will happen in Palma when the traffic on the Paseo Marítimo is reduced from three and four lanes per lane to just two. During the summer, when the cars of the natives are joined by the rental ones of the tourists, the traffic jams will be monumental. I don't even want to imagine the CO2 emissions caused by so many engines running on days when, in addition, three cruise ships dock - previously up to five -, with maritime pollution that does not seem to concern the authorities, and their passengers, until twenty thousand, travel along this road in cars or buses.
I have no doubt that improving cities in favor of pedestrians means making them more sustainable. This is a common criterion of European municipal policy. In principle, a magnificent measure that all citizens should congratulate ourselves on. However, in some cities, at least in the two where I live, Barcelona and Palma, the criteria with which they are applied are, quite often, detrimental to what they aim to achieve. It seems that they impose themselves without having viable alternatives.
Converting the Passeig Marítim into a space for pedestrians is a great idea, but it is necessary to offer an alternative to the circulation of cars. The ring belt, the supposedly fast road that surrounds Palma, is quite collapsed and will be even more so. This type of collapse involves not only financial losses, more fuel and time spent, but also serious damage to the health of citizens and the environment. Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience. Happy easter.
