The ULL, required by law to have staggered access to class

The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, launched this week the proposal to delay the entrance to classes at the ULL at ten in the morning. With the incentive of the extra contribution of twenty million euros for two years, ten per course, to those faculties that take a measure that is fully legitimized, Another thing is that it has not been accepted willingly by the vast majority of the community educational lagoon.

There are some exceptions such as the Faculty of Health Sciences (Medicine), which agrees to study at least for some courses. President Martín insists that it is not necessary for the faculties to change all the schedules. It is enough to have the initiative to receive the economic injection promised a few days ago.

Sources from the University of La Laguna state that “regardless of this law, a staggering of the schedule is already carried out to enter progressively between eight and nine.” With the exception of the officials who do it at eight. It should be borne in mind that it is not just about ordinary classes but that degrees, master’s degrees or other activities must be included.

the counselor

José Antonio Valbuena is counselor for Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands. He made it clear from the start yesterday in statements to Radio Club Tenerife and later confirmed it: «The Climate Change Law establishes schedule staggering plans. And the Law is there to fulfill it”. More if possible the public administrations that must be, he values, «exemplary and exemplary. We must ask them for a plus that cannot be demanded of the private sector. There is an “objective and obvious” fact that Valbuena introduces in this debate: «When there are no classes at the University of La Laguna, the intensity of traffic decreases considerably». He recalls that it was a law with public participation and consultation processes “in which the university itself intervened.” He broadens the focus of the analysis to “the large mobility centers, and public universities are, which have to carry out staggering plans for their time slots to reduce and dampen the traffic generated.”

The ULL and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria They have four years since the agency in charge of developing the strategy that is in the process of creation was established. Valbuena indicates that “it will be in this 2023”. He reflects: “I would not miss the opportunity offered by the Cabildo de Tenerife, with responsibility and an important contribution, because if they did not accept it they would have to face it in four years with their own financial resources without aid or other planning.” The counselor denies that the ULL has its own staggering plans in place: “That’s not true because we would have included them in the law.” He insists: “The agency will have to evaluate these plans and the law in hand the Cabildo could order to comply with them.”

The law

Law 6/2022, of December 27, on Climate Change and Energy Transition of the Canary Islands was published in the Official State Gazette on February 4, 2023. Article 49 refers to sustainable mobility in educational centers. Point 1 establishes that those responsible for educational centers have to encourage public transport to the detriment of the use of private vehicles for the transfer of schoolchildren and the university population to educational centers. Point 2 determines that “the public and private universities of the Canary Islands must establish staggered schedules for the start and end of activities that allow the intensity of the traffic generated to be reduced.” Finally, point 3 establishes that “these plans must be prepared within a maximum period of four years from the approval of the Canary Islands Climate Action Strategy, which will determine the minimum content of said document.”

The context

There are more than 800,000 registered cars in Tenerife, almost one per inhabitant. On the TF-5, the Autopista del Norte, at the height of La Laguna, 110,000 vehicles circulate early in the morning in the direction of Santa Cruz. Queues can last for hours until they collapse in traffic. The fundamental reasons are in the formation of two large funnels. One of them at the height of the Padre Anchieta roundabout. In addition to the pedestrian and vehicle circulation to and from the Central and Anchieta campuses, all the traffic that arrives from El Rosario along the La Esperanza highway and that generated in the area of ​​the La Laguna Transport Interchange must be taken into account. The other great traffic funnel occurs at the entrances to the large shopping centers with another university campus in this area: Guajara.

The solution?

The solution cannot lie in a single factor such as the idea of ​​delaying the start of classes at the University. It is necessary to include works in progress such as the burying of the TF-24, the La Esperanza highway, in its connection with the TF-5. Along with the work on the Padre Anchieta footbridge, it will divert almost 10,000 vehicles that will no longer pass through La Laguna on their way to the capital. The great hope is in the Circunvalación de Aguere that will take the cars from Guamasa to the lower part of the municipality. The investment of 355 million euros has the objective of preventing thousands of other cars from passing through the first funnel.