King of the road

By Jason Moore WE'VE got new motorways, a second ringroad around Palma, a metro line through the city centre, a well managed bus service but it appears that it is still not enough and the city council are looking at introducing London's controversial conjestion charge. I know that traffic is a major problem but aren't the local authorities getting slightly carried away? The jury is still out on whether thousands of motorists will abandon their cars and take the metro, I sincerely doubt it. I believe that the metro, which will link the centre of Palma with the main industrial estates and the local university, is an expensive luxury certainly not needed once the new ring-road is complete. But now yet another new traffic law is being considered. It appears at the moment that the complete government policy is being built around the car. We know that there are far too many cars on the roads and instead of encouraging more cars the goverment should be doing the opposite. There is a danger that the local authorities love affair with the car, which has seen important chunks of the island being destroyed to make way for the new highways, will start affecting tourism. Afterall, Majorca's rural beauty has always been a major plus point for tourists. A conjestion charge might be a good idea if there was no second ringroad or metro link, but all three is complete madness.