The Council of Mallorca's study of road carrying capacity has once more put the spotlight on the numbers of vehicles on the island - those permanently and temporarily in Mallorca.
A key conclusion of this study is that there can be up to 122,397 too many vehicles at the summer peak in August. This assumes that the "most restrictive" maximum should be 834,263.
The number of permanent vehicles in Mallorca does require some explaining and context. According to the Balearic Statistics Institute (Ibestat) there were 837,240 vehicles in 2023. The number of cars was 584,042. The rest comprise motorcycles, vans, trucks, buses and coaches, industrial tractors, trailers and 'others'. As the population of the island was 940,332, there were 0.9 vehicles per person - all vehicles, not cars.
At a European level, Eurostat's 2022 figures for passenger cars show that Mallorca and the Balearics were in the second highest group for cars. There are regions of Spain at a similar level of between 600 and 700 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants, such as Galicia, Extremadura and the Canaries. Other islands, e.g. Corsica and Sardinia, are at a comparable level. Sicily is in the highest group - over 700.
Commenting on the Council of Mallorca's report, a professor of human geography at the University of the Balearic Islands, Joana Maria Seguí, says that it is a confirmation that the level of motorisation in the Balearic Islands is the highest in Spain and one of the highest in Europe; motorisation is a word that Eurostat uses.
"There has been a very high growth in the car fleet. Mallorca has a limited territory of 3,640 square kilometres, of which more than 1,000 are in the Tramuntana Mountains. The population has almost doubled in thirty years and visitors have more than trebled, so the management of the territory and its mobility must be more efficient."
She believes that restrictive measures, such as that for Formentor in the summer, are necessary, adding: "Vehicles are only one of the elements of the complex transport and mobility system. These measures must be accompanied by others that are aimed at greater sustainability, such as improvement of the public transport system.
"Continuing to expand infrastructure does not solve the problem. This has been demonstrated by the reality." More lanes on Palma's Via Cintura or for motorways coming into Palma have not reduced the volume of traffic or traffic jams. "Management is based on better demand and not on increases in supply in a territory as limited as the island. Difficulties must be placed on the use of individual transport." This is because all the cars contribute to emissions, worsen the quality of life and make compliance with the laws on climate change and energy transition difficult.
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These figures do not truly represent the reality of the number of vehicles on the road. There are many people who have more than one vehicle registered in their name but that doesn't mean they're driving more than one at any given time. I'm a good example at the moment; due to my over optimism on how quickly I could sell two cars, I currently have 4 cars and a motorbike. Obviously, I never drive / ride more than one at a time. Also, living in a village, I often go several days without using a vehicle at all. To sum up, the number of vehicles registered is very different to the number of vehicles on the road. On the rare occasions I have to go to Palma, I take the train so, whilst I appreciate that there is a major problem with too many cars on the road, traffic jams don't affect me.
According to this data 0.9 vehicles per person includes men, women and all children. Under 16s account for about 20% and not all adults drive. Clearly car ownership is a major factor to the problem, making summer impossible for all. All because, and here’s the surprise, the public transport network is incomplete and poorly provisioned. I can’t get to work without a car. But I could do, far easier, if the trains went to Alcudia. Likewise for many others elsewhere, I’m sure. Stop letting 5 year olds plan the transport policy, for goodness sakes! Actually, a 5 year old could probably do better.
How come MDB didn't beat this drum when PSOE were running the show? It seems to be an every 2 day news story for MDB and yet its like it didn't exist when the PSOE were around??
In the absence of a proper public transport network -- around Palma/Calvia/Llucmajor not least -- and a road network fit for purpose, there are some measures I believe could alleviate some of the worst of the traffic. The road layout in some places is downright dangerous, but better signage in certain hotspots could help. A billboard advertising campaign to warn drivers about tailgating is another relatively cheap measure. It won't resolve the problem of accidents and traffic jams, but the sudden braking caused by poor driving and by visitors who don't know where they're going, causes a concertina-effect, bringing motorways to a halt for perfectly preventable reasons. Driving too close is dangerous, so why is there no effort to educate people? And now to my biggest daily bugbear; the MA-19 northbound approach to the airport.... I have some suggestions. The northbound MA-19 channels 120km/h traffic into a single-lane bottleneck that creeps along at 60-80km/h to the MA-20. Of course, there should be an exit from the MA-19 towards the MA-20 well before the Palma city limits, but this would take years to construct. In the meantime, reducing the speed limit to 100km/h from Llucmajor to the airport and lowering it to 80km/h between the airport and Palma will help the flow of traffic. It will also reduce the risk of accidents caused by cars coming to a halt in the only non-VAO lane trying to cut into the long queue just before the exit. The VAO lane itself that should either be enforced, active only at peak times, or removed altogether, of course. Now, every day the same thing happens at Exit 7 northbound on the MA-19, the airport turn-off. There is a lack of clear signage counting down the distance to Exit 7, which should be much BIGGER AND MORE FREQUENT, especially for tourists and rental car drivers who don't notice the exit is coming up until it's almost too late. Traffic signs are cheap, so let's PLEASE have more LARGE airport signs starting at 3 km, at 0.5 km intervals. Of course, a slip road like the one on the southbound highway would be even better (there is space for this, with only a footbridge adjustment required), but in the meantime BIGGER AND MORE FREQUENT SIGNAGE would be helpful. It won't resolve the issue completely, of course, but it will help. From spring to autumn, traffic comes to a standstill simply because drivers don't know the airport exit is coming and are in the wrong lane. But, because locals like to be attached to the bumper in front of them, one late braking manoeuvre is enough to bring the entire motorway to a standstill. As it stands, the signposting we have now is the kind you see for a little regional airport in the middle of nowhere; it's not adequate for one the busiest airports in the entire Western Mediterranean. In an ideal world, we would have variable speed limit gantries and signage around the south-west, but they are expensive to install and maintain. It is clear that Mallorca's roads around Palma were not designed for the current volume of traffic, but they could at least be managed better. As things stand, having 120kmh traffic on such poorly designed roads, with many entrances and exits, often in the same place, and drivers with a low level of competence, is a dangerous cocktail. None of the above is a silver bullet, but while road construction takes years and is expensive, we could make much better use of the roads we have.
Just TogetpublishedI like the Park and ride idea too. To free Palmas Central Area saturation of cars etc.
Looking at the picture in this Article. I assume is the Via Centura. Surely everyone can see that the amount of traffic is overloaded. If Public Transport and Train Travel was made free of charge to Residents. Bus and Train routes , and their frequency , increased to where people live and work. Funding to facilitate a gratis service could be from a fair overall taxation plan. Along with the revenue from payingTourists. Would be attractive for Drivers going to and from work etc. They would leave the car at home and use the free services This would reduce the traffic on all the roads. Also the Rail Services need urgent construction , to put the free travel into effective use.
Maybe they just don't want to build the new train lines after all. I wonder if they have thought about improving the public transport and making Palma park and ride, just a thought.