Tenerife exceeds three million motorized trips per day for the first time

If the forecasts of a 32% increase in travel and 16% increase in population (from 950,000 to more than 1.1 million), The number of internal displacements would be 4.3 million in 2035. This panorama “adds more complexity to the resolution of a problem that will grow again when 100% of the previous mobility is recovered,” the document points out. Either habits change, at the same time that infrastructure is improved, or congestion, far from subsiding, will increase.

The study that marks the guidelines to improve the mobility of Tenerife It provides endless data that draws a precise diagnosis of the situation that the long-suffering island drivers face every day. Added to the high number of motorized trips, most of them short distances, is the abuse of private vehicles (only 11% of motorized trips on the Island are made by public transport compared to 89% by private vehicle), the fact that Most of the time it only has one person (average occupancy rate of 1.3, one of the lowest in Europe) and the high number of vehicles in general (almost one per inhabitant, 792,350).

The Sustainable Mobility Plan clearly indicates the three main bottlenecks that clog traffic in Tenerife: on a weekday, the three areas made up of the eight main municipalities are those that attract almost 80% of daily trips by residents: Santa Cruz-La Laguna, Adeje-Arona-Granadilla and Los Realejos -La Orotava-Puerto de la Cruz, with almost 2 million daily motor trips. “Municipal policies decided in favor of active modes and public transport, such as the creation of Low Emission Zones or the regulation of surface parking, are necessary to help reverse the modal distribution of transport,” the document points out.

The heart of the metropolitan area concentrates 43% of the island’s population (260,000 inhabitants) and, consequently, the highest number of vehicle trips: Santa Cruz registers 746,965 each day on average and La Laguna, 633,051. It is more than double the mobility generated by the third and fourth municipalities with the highest number of total movements: Arona (297,401 trips) and Adeje (229,751). 58.6% of trips throughout a working day sometimes pass through these four municipalities.

The traffic jam in the South area

But the South Zone, especially the one that concentrates most of the tourist activity (AdejeArona, San Miguel, Granadilla), also presents very high figures of motorized movements: with 240,000 inhabitants (26% of the island population) and a number of jobs with a very similar representation (23% of the Island), It supports 763,900 trips daily, of which 673,632 trips are internal trips to the whole (22% of residents’ total trips). Within this system, the Abona macrozone (Arona, San Miguel and Granadilla) supports some 374,700 daily internal trips.

In the North, despite not having as much tourism, circulation is not fluid either: the macrozone of the La Orotava valley maintains 298,300 resident trips daily and, as in the case of Abona, it occupies second place based on the percentage of trips that are generated and attracted within the area it covers, 79%. In relation to the exterior, the La Orotava Valley supports 167,000 daily trips, 65% with the rest of the north of the Island, 28% (46,760) pass through the metropolitan area and 5% through the South.

Public transport is not a solution, despite the efforts of administrations to reinforce it, this points out. mobility roadmap in Tenerife with a view to 2045. “An increase in the use of public transport is perceived and expected, but since it is conditioned by territorial dispersion, it does not seem that it is gaining percentage share in the modal distribution, but rather that it is losing it,” notes the document, which specifies: ” That is, public transport continues to transport especially a captive user. [que lo usa al no tener vehículo y carné de conducir] and only the tram is capable of competing with the private vehicle in short-distance relationships, in the area of ​​less than 7 kilometers.

“However,” the Plan states, “despite the panorama presented, there is a clear global trend towards a reformulation of mobility, especially urban mobility, and there are many cities that adopt important changes in their organization of urban mobility and are committed to “for mobility with a greater presence of active mobility and public transport while travel by private vehicle has been discouraged and even restricted.”

Mobility policies

The cities that have opted for a shift in mobility policies towards a more sustainable model “They have broken the traditional axiom of past decades of the greater the increase in income, the greater the percentage of motorization and use of private vehicles.” On the contrary, “they show notable advances in the capacity to generate wealth and well-being of the population.” This is not the case of Tenerife.

In the urban centers of Tenerife “this has not yet occurred reduction in the use of private vehicles in favor of public transport and in other sustainable ways (walking or cycling)”, highlights the report, which adds that, however, “it seems appropriate to consider a scenario with active policies to discourage the use of private vehicles in the large urban centers of the Island, derived compliance with the regulatory framework (climate change laws and future mobility law) and the development of cities, with Low Emission Zones as an action that can provide a boost.

“It is surprising that there is still not a single municipality on the Island with effective control of on-street parking time,” he warns. “These policies must support a cultural change, in the predisposition to use public transport and non-motorized modes in competitive relationships with the private vehicle, especially in the metropolitan area and in relation to it from abroad,” advises the Mobility Plan.