The Council of Mallorca and Soller town hall have reached an agreement designed to eliminate traffic chaos on the Palma-Puerto Soller main road that passes through Soller.
This road, 'desvío' (literally detour), is a section of the MA-11. As this is a main 'carretera', responsibility for the road lies with the Council and not the town hall. The agreement will change this. The section of road will be reclassified as urban, giving powers to Soller Police that they don't currently have. The police are at present unable to do anything about irregular parking.
Josep Porcel, Soller's councillor for mobility, explains that the reclassification will apply between Can Repic and the L'Horta junction. As a result, there will be a project for a lane for pedestrian traffic on one side of the road, but the more immediate impact will be a progressive prohibition of parking.
New car parks are to be made available, Porcel calculating that these will be able to accommodate the same number of vehicles that currently park on the main road's hard shoulders. Drivers will be forced to use these car parks, which will be paid for.
The first car park, at Can Tinet, is expected to open at the end of this month. Once the Council of Mallorca has signalled the new road category, the town hall will place pillars on one of the sections in order to prevent parking and to direct drivers to this car park. By next summer, it is envisaged that parking will be prevented along the whole stretch of road.
4 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Chris GI totally agree. And not only Soller residents and businesses but also those who have to make daily deliveries from Palma or other parts of the island. My comment about closing the tunnel was said half in jest, but the fact remains that it one of the principal causes of the problem. My humble opinion is that the Formentor lighthouse solution should be used, starting from a large parking lot built before, and it could be a few kilometers, the tunnel entrance. The same would have to be done on land between Fornalutx and Soller. Basically a good old park and drive, which would, apart from solving the problem, pay for itself with the generated income. I’m not holding my breath though.
This all sounds sensible moving cars from the side of the bypass road to new dedicated car parks. However it really does nothing to solve the problem frequently seen, where the sheer volume of traffic heading to Soller means backups through the tunnel and back past Bunyola towards the Palmanyola roundabout. We've seen the Soller tunnel closed periodically due to this. The residents and businesses of Soller must to be allowed to freely move to and from their town without having to battle the tail backs of endless rental cars. Where is the proposal to fix this problem???
Or close the tunnel.
This is actually a very sensible move. You can complain endlessly about the traffic, but that alone won't change anything. So, if you actually want to make an impact, find ways to accommodate the increased traffic - with more car parks and increased ability to enforce parking ordinances. Or just keep complaining.