The new Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (PMUS) of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, approved in the municipal plenary session on the 22nd, seeks to plan the best use of transport in the city to achieve a balance on the basis of sustainability and quality improvement of life. The document, which updates the previous one from 2014, plans to carry out 55 actions in ten years and will involve a total investment of 185.89 million euros, of which 158 million correspond to the capital’s City Council.
The new SUMP is “a decisive commitment to reducing CO2 emissions,” according to the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, especially when taking into account that in Santa Cruz de Tenerife there are about 700,000 trips a day, of which a 34% are internal, 32% from other municipalities to the capital and the remaining 34% from the municipality to the outside. Furthermore, 72% of these trips occur by private vehicle and only 8% by public transport. To this end, the approved document – which will be reviewable to adapt to urban demands – is based on five strategies with 15 different sectoral plans and a total of 55 actions, among which the creation of superblocks to calm traffic stands out; the regularization of parking lots with payment zones and park-and-ride parking at city entrances; escalators or elevators in neighborhoods like Valleseco; network of pedestrian routes; corridors for bicycles and scooters on the coastal road and Los Majuelos; the promotion of a 100% sustainable route in Francisco La Roche; the passenger hub for 1,053 electric vehicles; the expansion of bus-taxi lanes; monitored school roads, or the promotion of shared travel with the implementation of carsharing (temporary use of cars) or bicycle rental, among others. The Councilor for Mobility, Evelyn Alonso, highlighted that this plan, which has been created based on the conclusions of a diagnosis carried out and citizen contributions, seeks to “improve the fluidity of mobility on the network and free up public space for other modes and uses in favor of citizens; facilitate the orderly integration of new, more sustainable modes of mobility to improve quality of life and the environment, and optimize the distribution of goods and reduce their impacts. All this with the integration of transversal elements in urban mobility and the support for sustainable mobility through Smart-City ICT solutions.”
Traffic reduction
The intention of the SUMP is to reduce the private traffic that the capital endures daily and focus on pedestrianization and sustainability in favor of a more resilient city. To this end, among the innovations included, the creation of superblocks stands out, in which transit traffic circulates outside, favoring speeds of 10 kilometers per hour inside, to allow pedestrian use. The first performances will be in the Los Hoteles-El Toscal area, as well as in Los Gladiolos, Las Delicias, La Salud and Los Alisios. The conditioning of lots is also included to favor parking for residents in low-density areas and urban layouts with very narrow streets; park and ride facilities at the entrances to the capital so that cars do not enter the city center; or the creation of blue payment zones for 7,000 surface spaces in the Centro-Ifara, Ofra-Cosa Sur and Salud-La Salle districts. The plan also includes sanctioning measures to reduce illegal parking on roads; the control of loading and unloading of goods, or the implementation of web and mobile Apps that help the driver choose the best route.
