Tenerife does not support more cars or more roads

The island of Tenerife has, as of December 2021, 849,133 registered vehiclesnot counting the 24,928 rent, of which 586,381 are passenger cars, while just over half of the population (568,828) have a driver’s license, according to data from the DGT. Some numbers that reflect the need to increase public transport in the face of the succession of traffic jams experienced in the two large populated areas of Tenerife, the metropolitan area and the Arona-Adeje tourist area. These figures are for Enrique Arriaga, Vice President and Councilor for Mobility of the Cabildo, a true reflection that “in Tenerife there is no room for more cars or more roads”, emphasizing that “the infrastructures projected in 2005 must be completed and have not been done in 20 years, but there is no longer room for four or six lanes on our highways”.

For Arriaga, the problem of the massive presence of cars on the 1,550 kilometers of roads that the Island has has increased even with the pandemic, because “now more cars with a single driver are seen, for fear of contagion,” he said, and recognized that “public transport continues to be a minority, despite the fact that we have improved the service and our buses.” Arriaga recalled that one of the solutions goes through the Bus-HOV lanes and, despite the fact that the island president, Pedro Martín, said a few months ago that “it is not a priority”, he opted for the South train. “This Friday -he said- we will take to the plenary session of the Cabildo, as in Gran Canaria, a motion in which we will request to include the trains in the Spanish Strategic Railway Network, an essential step to obtain from the Ministry of Public Works and European funds Next Generation the complete financing of the 2,400 million euros that the already drafted project for the South train costs, but not the North train, because there is barely a sketch and it would be almost unfeasible due to urban pressure around the TF-5, due to the number of tunnels that had to be opened and the cost of exceeding the 600-meter level from Santa Cruz to La Laguna,” said the vice president.

In the drafting of the Island Plan for Sustainable Mobility 2020-2040, the train from the South is included, from Santa Cruz to Adeje, although Arriaga does not rule out that initially it could be done from San Isidro to Adeje, “the area with the most automobile load”. So much so, that the Cabildo has already bought “expropriable” land in Los Cristianos -pending the final appraisal set by the Canary Islands Government Appraisal Court- and is waiting to do the same for the future train interchange and of buses in San Isidro. Nor does it rule out an overlapping (air) route between Guaza and Adeje, an old project included in the PIOT.

Arriaga considers that the completion of the works carried out on the TF-5 at the height of La Laguna and the Oroteanda-Las Chafiras roundabout will relieve traffic on the highways, as will the completion of the island ring, once they are saved the environmental problems of the Barranco de Ruiz, to start the project for the section from Buen Paso (Icod) to Los Realejos.

Six million for the land of the Los Cristianos interchange

The Cabildo has already made available six million euros – the businessmen are asking for double that – for a piece of land in El Mojón to build the southern train interchange.