On Saturday at seven in the afternoon Colón Street was bustling with visitors, vehicles driving towards the Bullring and shoppers crossing, up and down the street, to do their Christmas shopping. The whistle of a local police officer regulating traffic at the intersection with Lauria Street showed the collapse of traffic that the city center has experienced this December long weekend, a sample of what can happen in the coming weeks when there continues to be massive influx of people, dinners and business lunches and, therefore, a lot of pre-Christmas hubbub.
On Wednesday the 6th, the first holiday of the bridge, the EMT announced around six in the afternoon a first incident: due to “crowding”, line C1 modified its route in the center of the city. This line connects the historic center, from Porta de la Mar passing through Calle de la Paz and San Vicente to the Town Hall to end at the Plaza del Temple. But faced with the avalanche of pedestrians, the EMT announced that it was redirecting the line from Calle de la Paz through Marqués de Dos Aguas, Poeta Querol, Colón and Xàtiva streets, where it would resume its route again.
The same line modified its route again on Thursday the 7th, in this case due to the celebration of an event in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento and on the 8th, a cut on San Vicente Street also forced this line to be redirected.
On Saturday, again and also due to “Christmas influx” according to the EMT, the same line was redirected through the previously mentioned streets and the same situation occurred again yesterday, with the same argument put forward from the account on the social network ” X” of the Municipal Transport Company. The demonstration that took place downtown in the morning also forced traffic to be redirected.
All of these changes have also occurred on a weekend with a large tourist influx, two weeks before the Christmas holidays and prior to the modification of the new mobility that the City Council has planned to activate tomorrow.
From then on, up to seven EMT lines return to the city center: lines 4, 11, 16, 26, 31, 32 and 70. Lines 4, 11, 31, 32 and 70 join C1 and will run through La Paz and San Vicente streets to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. And both 16 and 26 will arrive along La Paz Street to Poeta Querol.
Likewise, Colón Street will have two traffic lanes for motorized traffic and one bus lane, all limited to a speed of 30 km/h. In addition, the main commercial artery of the city will have two taxi ranks, since a new stop will be enabled between Pizarro and Pascual and Genís streets.
The changes announced by the council and the modifications of these days have provoked criticism from the opposition. The PSPV already criticized on Friday the “constant improvisation of the PP in terms of mobility to set the city back 40 years” and requested a meeting with the EMT works committee to inform it of its complaint, since also the drivers of The municipal company has questioned the announced changes.
This committee agreed on the 30th to study the possibility of filing a complaint with the Road Safety Prosecutor’s Office against the Valencia City Council due to the risk that, in its opinion, the recent decision to return several bus lines to the city center entails. They consider that the new changes may entail the risk of serious accidents, such as being run over or braking, given that the buses will circulate through pedestrianized areas, without curbs or specific separation for pedestrian circulation.
To these complaints, and to those of the city’s taxi drivers a few weeks ago, were added yesterday those of more than 40 social and neighborhood entities, brought together in the Trobada Municipalista, which also requested the reversal of the mobility policies of the Valencia City Council for “regressive”. According to a statement from the platform, spokespersons for the groups expressed their “most absolute rejection” of the measures of the new Valencia city council, as they consider that “they involve invading the Town Hall square with 600 buses, thus eliminating said space for the pedestrian traffic.”
