Mallorca's coach drivers are highlighting the hazards they face on narrow roads in the Tramuntana Mountains due to the sheer number of cyclists and hire cars.
The ACTUA association of drivers is drawing attention to the road from Coll de sa Batalla towards the Sa Calobra junction in particular and to cyclists' "reckless behaviour". "Every day, hordes of cyclists speed down a narrow road with no shoulder or occupy the centre of the road, blocking buses and causing accidents." This danger is compounded when cyclists are mixed with dozens of hire cars. The Sa Calobra road has a steep incline and is where there have been serious accidents involving cyclists, some fatal.
At a minimum, they are asking for a regulation of cycling with schedules that don't clash with those of the coaches, which are themselves limited by the town hall in Escorca and have specific times for going down to and then back up from Sa Calobra.
The Sa Calobra road is not the only problematic spot in the Tramuntana. Other areas include Formentor, where the ban on unauthorised private vehicles (including hire cars, therefore) going beyond the beach doesn't start until May 15. Cyclists are exempt from this ban. Coaches, it should be pointed out, are also banned, but not public buses.
Sa Foradada in Deià is another. This is privately owned, and there is a parking fee, but this hasn't prevented an overcrowding of vehicles that hinders the manoeuvring of coaches. At Coll de sa Batalla, just before Lluc Sanctuary, there is a bar and petrol station, and it is a rest stop.
As one driver puts it: "It's impossible to work with this stress every day; some of my colleagues are going crazy." It is a situation that was reported on almost a year ago, when the association was calling for a meeting with the Council of Mallorca to get some regulation.