Despite the holiday season winding down Palma taxi services are still struggling to cope with demand, although when it rains in Palma, catching a cab is never easy. This morning I booked a taxi to get to Son Espases for a 4.30pm appointment. I thought leaving the centre of Palma at 3.45pm would give enough time, however the very polite lady advised to make it 3.30pm to make sure I got there on time - the problem’ The traffic and it’s not exactly the alleged ‘car hire season’.
Officially, well according to Google Maps, the journey from the centre of Palma to the hospital is 12 min (5,3 km). To be honest, it never is, the daily traffic jams in Palma are not down to hire cars, it is due to the sheer amount of resident vehicles on the road, especially at peak commuter/school times. And, the president of the Balearic Islands car rental association, Cristóbal Herrera, has stated that, although the Balearic authorities are attacking the car rental sector, the cause of the mobility problems on the islands lies in the lack of public transport.
According to Herrera, ‘the problem is that both the regional government and the governments of the different islands, instead of working together to improve tourism, have decided to lead the protest against tourism,’ he said, according to a statement issued by the national association. The president of Baleval has accused both the regional government and the island councils of ‘targeting car rental as the main focus of their attack, in order to ignore the lack of infrastructure and public transport’.
At the annual convention of the National Business Federation of Vehicle Rental with and without Drivers, Feneval, its president, Juan Luis Barahoma, expressed his concern about ‘the political drift’ that has developed this year in the Balearics, where ‘restrictions on tourism have been unilaterally imposed, aimed essentially at the car rental sector’.
According to the association, this restriction violates the regional law on vehicle traffic control, ‘given that it was not published at least three months before its entry into force’ in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands. According to Feneval, ‘a sector that represents only 10% of the vehicles on the islands is being criminalised’.
‘It seems that we are doing something wrong in the automotive sector and also in tourism, as we are being criminalised for all the problems that exist in areas with the highest tourist traffic, but no real solutions are being put in place,’ said Barahona.