Bus drivers under stress
Since the political change at Palma town hall in June, a good deal of attention has been paid to the EMT bus company. Always allowing for the politics and some possible exaggeration, the new administration apparently inherited a service that was unsatisfactory because of all the buses that were off the road at any given time because they needed repairs.
Other factors have contributed to strains on the service, such as the buses having been free to residents this year. And when there are failings, it is the drivers who have to contend with passenger discontent because of a reduction in frequencies, buses running late or not at all.
Against a background of absenteeism that has been running at 15% of the workforce, some of the drivers have been speaking out. Stress attacks have been suffered because of passenger abuse. The schedules are unrealistic and don't give them time to rest. EMT is being run like it was fifteen years ago when there were only 100 employees; there are now 800. They maintain that cuts in frequencies were covered up. Until a few months ago, instead of there being five buses on a line with frequencies of ten minutes, there were two buses and a frequency of thirty minutes.
Might pressures experienced by bus drivers elsewhere in Mallorca go towards explaining an incident in Santa Margalida? A bus overtook a tractor on the road between Santa Margalida and Can Picafort. This was perfectly legal, but the issue was a car in the other direction, which had to brake and pull over. A video suggested that this had been a dangerous manoeuvre. But might it have been the case that the driver was trying to make up for lost time? Still, no real excuse if there could have been an accident.
Banning scooters from buses
Sustainable mobility is what politicians and others like to call it. Public transport and green forms of mobility are meant to be the future. But they can't be if the services don't run smoothly and conveniently. And nor can they be when these two elements combine in a negative manner. There have been complaints about the number of scooters taken onto Palma buses and which occupy spaces intended for other purposes, baby buggies for instance. The town hall has acted. From Monday next week, scooters will be banned on the buses.
Tragedies on the roads
The past few days have provided bad news about Mallorca's roads. On Tuesday, there were two fatal accidents - a car driver who lost control in the wet and was hit by a van on the Calonge-S'Alqueria Blanca road in Santanyi and a motorcyclist who was thrown from his bike and hit rocks on the side of the Caimari-Lluc road.
Last week, there was the tragic accident in Llubi. A 40-year-old mother and her four-year-old daughter both lost their lives after their bicycle was struck by a car. The driver tested positive for drugs. But subsequent reporting of the accident pointed to other factors. The driver admitted having smoked a joint the evening before but insisted that this hadn't affected her driving the following morning. A Guardia Civil report suggested that there was no influence from toxic substances, while the driver also said that the bicycle had turned suddenly and had crossed her path. Tragedy whatever the facts of the case.
Via Cintura speeds and near misses
The Council of Mallorca is hoping to reduce the potential for accidents on the Via Cintura in Palma by painting solid white lines along certain sections which will supposedly prevent dangerous lane changes at exits. This may be a welcome move, though as any driver knows the exit lanes themselves are distinctly hairy because they are also entry lanes.
It is argued that increasing the speed limit on the Via Cintura won't lead to more accidents. The Partido Popular had made an election pledge to increase the limit, it having been cut by the previous administration from 120 kilometres per hour to 80 in February 2021 - one of the reasons for this was to reduce accidents.
The increased limit, says the president of the Council, Llorenç Galmés, will come into effect in November. He has as yet not confirmed what the new limit will be; 120 has been ruled out, and 100 is likely. But whatever the limit, accidents are always likely to occur, especially if someone is driving in the wrong direction. On Tuesday evening, a driver, said to have been a senior citizen, caused panic on the Via Cintura when he travelled several kilometres the wrong way. Fortunately, there was no accident.
Are there really no illegal motorbike races in the mountains?
In the Tramuntana Mountains, the row continues about so-called illegal motorbike races. Residents who have suffered because of these for years staged a protest a fortnight ago by blocking the MA-10 main road in Banyalbufar. They didn't have permission for the protest, a point referred to by the traffic directorate (DGT) earlier this week. Seeking to combat one form of non-compliance with another was unacceptable.
But what is the non-compliance by bikers? The DGT may well have fuelled residents' ire further by reporting that there are no illegal bike races. The directorate had examined speed data from June and July and concluded that there was very little speeding on the MA-10 - just under eight per cent of all vehicles. It went on to say that the average speed was 35 kilometres per hour. But as an astute Bulletin reader observed, an average is an average. It doesn't exclude the possibility of a motorbike being ridden at 100 km/h and so therefore well over a limit of 60.
Drugs overboard!
The MA-10 is policed by the Guardia Civil's Trafico, but it was a different division of the force that was placed in charge of investigating the appearance of bundles of hashish in Andratx and Calvia. Last Saturday morning, bundles weighing some 40 kilos were found under a catamaran that had run aground on the small Es Caló d'en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponsa. The catamaran had been pushed by last week's storm, and this was attributed with the appearance of the hash. A landing had failed because of the bad conditions and bundles of the drug had fallen into the sea.
Two individuals with a van were seen removing at least two bundles on Saturday. Two more were discovered under the catamaran. And over the next few days, more and more appeared - some in Puerto Andratx and one as far away as the island of Dragonera. By Wednesday, twenty bundles and counting had been retrieved.
Drugs were the cause of a fight in Arenal which led to the death of one of those involved. The fight started inside a bar and then continued outside. A 27-year-old German was later arrested for having stabbed the other man to death; he was 37, originally from the Dominican Republic but with a German passport. It was all about the non-payment of a drugs-related debt. The German was remanded in custody.
Will the Chinese be coming?
Would Arenal be a likely destination for Chinese tourists in Mallorca? Probably not, as their profile suggests that they would be more attracted by the old centre of Palma. And it is this profile, one of high spending, which is attractive to the Balearic government's Aetib tourism agency.
It was reported that Aetib officials had made contacts with representatives from two airlines - China Eastern and China Southern - at last week's Routes World fair in Istanbul. Discussions centred on the possibility of direct flights to Palma. There was some talk of this back in 2018, but whatever progress may have been made came to an end because of the pandemic. Reaction among some people commenting on the Bulletin Facebook page wasn't exactly positive.
But one can imagine that the likes of Mallorca's up-market restaurants would be delighted at the prospect of all that free-spending Chinese money. As it is, the restaurants say that they have been enjoying a good October thanks to the generally good weather and the sheer number of visitors. They are also looking forward to an excellent Christmas season, the president of the CAEB Restaurants Association, Alfonso Robledo, having expressed pleasant surprise at how well early bookings for companies' Christmas lunches and dinners are going.
Robledo added that dining out on Christmas Eve is becoming increasingly popular and that ever more restaurants are opting to be open on Christmas Eve. It used to be the case that they would normally be closed.