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.