The PI-Proposta per les Illes Balears party will call for an ‘urgent’ plan to improve cycle paths and routes across the island in a motion to be presented at the January plenary session of the Council of Mallorca. In a press release, the PI-Proposta per les Illes Balears announced that it will present a motion at the January plenary session of the Council of Mallorca to promote the improvement of the cycle routes used by cyclists on the island, with the aim of increasing safety, organising pending actions and responding to an increasingly present reality on Mallorca’s roads.
The regionalist party pointed out that Mallorca is a land deeply linked to cycling, both because of its sporting tradition – with historical and current figures of the highest level in all disciplines – and because of the large social base that practises it. In general, El PI pointed out that there are more than 110 active cycling clubs in the Balearics and thousands of people who practise this sport on a regular basis, to which must be added more than 150,000 cycle tourists who visit Mallorca every year.
Despite this social, sporting and economic importance, El PI has warned that ‘many of the roads used as cycle routes do not offer adequate safety conditions, either for cyclists or for other road users’. Added to this is the fact that ‘a large part of the civic roads announced have not yet been built,’ the regionalist party continued to warn, ‘and that there is a lack of coordination between the Council and the local councils on those roads owned by the municipalities’.
‘Cycling is a well-established reality in Mallorca, but the institutional response is not up to the task,’ said El PI spokesperson in the Council, Antoni Salas. ‘It is not enough to announce kilometres of civic roads: we must prioritise the roads that are actually most used and most dangerous, listening to cyclists and municipalities,’ he added.
The motion registered by El PI urges the Council’s Department of Roads and Infrastructure to open a consultation process with the Balearic Cycling Federation and local councils to identify the roads most used by cyclists that need urgent action, whether through resurfacing, widening the carriageway or other safety improvements.
In addition, El PI proposes the development of a Work Plan for the Improvement of Cycle Routes in Mallorca, with a clear and public schedule of actions. ‘We need planning, objective criteria and specific deadlines. Every year we continue to lament accidents and risky situations that could be avoided with more decisive management,’ Salas remarked.
Finally, the initiative also proposes the establishment of agreements between the Council and the local councils responsible for particularly dangerous sections, in order to be able to act in a coordinated manner where jurisdiction is not exclusively insular. ‘The PI advocates a model of safe, orderly and respectful mobility that takes into account both residents and visitors and protects people’s lives,’ concluded Antoni Salas, finally emphasising that ‘improving cycle paths is not just a matter of sport, it is a matter of road safety and institutional responsibility’.