Gob want a drastic reduction in hire cars

Hire cars and tourists are under attack again, this time from the Balearic environmental group GOB. Yesterday the organisation called for a “drastic reduction” in the size of Majorca's fleet of rental cars, which it claims, consists of over 55'000 vehicles which are causing a number of problems. The saturation of the island's roads, the high number of accidents, parking problems and traffic in Palma being brought to a halt are, according to GOB, caused by hire cars. The environmentalists claim that Majorca has the highest number of hire cars per capita in Spain and per kilometre, a phenomenon which, GOB claims, even certain parts of the tourist industry object to. GOB yesterday called on the local authorities to introduce stricter controls on the number of hire cars, parking spaces and rental companies operating in Majorca. This winter, however, has been a quiet one for the island's hire car agencies, but the traffic problems have continued, or worsened in some cases, and the accident rate risen. With 30 per cent less hotels open over the winter and a sharp drop in the number of tourists - either the few visitors who have come here are particularly bad drivers or perhaps the traffic issue needs to be studied as a whole with even resident drivers included because, granted, things will only get worse this summer.