Users of the capital’s Las Teresitas beach can no longer circulate through the so-called lane 0, annexed to the sand area. Two traffic signs alert drivers of the prohibition of access to this road, which now only allows passage to authorized cars, loading and unloading, motorcycles, bicycles or scooters and buses for adults who are going to play sports.
The Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, through the Mobility area, justifies the decision in that it is a measure to “guarantee safety and make traffic more fluid on busy days.” On the other hand, the lack of knowledge of many people about this new ordinance is causing the opposite effect, as happened last Monday, New Year’s Day, in which long queues of cars exceeded the forecasts, causing long delays that collapsed access to the beach and blocked traffic on the San Andrés highway. Lane 0 recently had limited parking, but vehicles were allowed so that older people or children could get off next to the sandy area, since the beach lacks pedestrian areas in lanes 1 and 2. In addition, it facilitated traffic to access 9 of the beach, where cars could reach exit lane 2 to park.
Now, after the ban on driving in lane 0, some controversy has been generated, since the CSIF union of the Local Police has denounced that “the removal of one of the two current accesses to the beach is producing a huge agglomeration of cars , traffic jams and delays, aggravated after the implementation of this closure decision by the City Council.”
In the opinion of the union delegate, Jesús Illada, “in addition to this measure, the signage is located just when the vehicles are about to access lane 0, so they have to reverse with the consequent risk that this implies for the traffic. road safety”. The horizontal signage with an arrow pointing only to the left makes it impossible for cars authorized to enter to do so in this way, since it forces them to drive in that direction,” he warned. A fact that for the CSIF “only motivates more delays at the beach access roundabout, also blocking public transport, something that did not happen before the prohibition of passage.”
For her part, the Councilor for Mobility of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, Evelyn Alonso, explained that “about two months ago I visited the area, when the new Las Teresitas parking lot was opened, together with the Local Police and technicians from the area to determine on the spot the actions to take to reinforce the beach signage, since no work can be done. Therefore, this decision to leave lane 0 only for authorized vehicles was made in order to avoid traffic jams.”
According to Evelyn Alonso, “the measure is to respond to the busiest days at the beach, with the aim that people do not enter the lane and when the parking lots are full they do not get stuck waiting to get out.”
