It will have 39 access control points, with license plate recognition cameras and management platforms that will allow knowing where there are traffic jams, cars parked in double rows or irregularly occupying loading and unloading spaces. The future Low Emissions Zone (ZBE), which is equated with the current Zone of Great Tourist Influx, will mean a change in the mobility of the center of Santa Cruz, which is intended to shield against the use of private vehicles.
The installation of this ZBE will fully affect surface car parks, specifically, the Consistory estimates that there will be some 1,700 that will be redistributed, of which 1,300 are in the El Toscal area. The final result will be the limitation of parking on the road, the management of loading and unloading and the regulation and pricing of parking (the so-called blue zone), and all with the aim of freeing up spaces for residents and discouraging the use of private cars in an area with a high concentration of vehicles. This is stated in the document with which they aspire to obtain Next Generation funds to make Santa Cruz a more sustainable city in terms of mobility.
The ZBE covers the entire central area of Santa Cruz, which is home to a large number of residences and the main points of attraction for travel (offices, commerce and public administration). Its perimeter is made up of three of the main roads of the city, with intensities greater than 35,000 vehicles/day and the natural axis of the Barranco de Santos.
The proposal is to progressively regulate the access, circulation and parking of vehicles, in accordance with environmental requirements and integrating residents, underground car parks and delivery vehicles, with their particular characteristics, into their management.
The ZBE will go from the current restricted area, controlled by cameras, intercoms and bollards, to a more automated management with control cameras and a management platform, total access control (39), reorganization of public space, especially that linked to parking, the expansion of pedestrian areas and lanes for personal mobility that make up another of the actions that are presented in the application for EU funds, in addition to a regulatory ordinance.
In this way, the regulation of parking will affect 7,500 households and 16,604 residents (8% of the municipal population), but it is the area with the greatest capacity to attract trips in the municipality (29,800 trips by private vehicle, almost 10% of the trips in a private vehicle of the municipality). The parking arrangement will affect 1,754 surface spaces, of which 1,342 are in El Toscal.
goals
The objective of implementing this low-emissions zone is to reduce that number of trips by private car by at least 30%, that is, to 21,000. As stated in the project, this ZBE constitutes the support for other actions within the request for funds, such as the cycle lanes or the remodeling of Imeldo Serís and La Rosa.
