The Gran Vía of Madrid becomes pedestrian – The Universal

Madrid has started this christmas a pilot plan to close their city centre to cars and reduce the pollution. The measure is the prohibition of driving on the Gran Vía, the city’s most crowded city.

During these holidays, four of the six lanes of the great commercial axis of the Spanish capital are closing down to traffic by fences, so pedestrians use the roadway as an extension of the sidewalk. The two central lanes reserved for public transport, residents, bikes, bicycle, guests of hotels, rented vehicles, "zero emissions" and parcel. All, to 30 kilometers per hour. The closures will extend to other major streets, as More and Atocha.

In the Gran Vía is home to the largest shops in the country, luxury hotels and theatres. The measure coincides with the dates at which it receives more visitors for the Christmas shopping. The mayor, Manuela Carmena, has said that his goal is to peatonalizar definitely "a big part" of the avenue before 2019.

That would award the plan to humanize the face of the city that houses the new town hall of Madrid, one of the "councils for change" governed by we Can. In the budgets of the coming years will include a line item for the sidewalk of the Gran Vía to be permanently enlarged, occupying all four lanes today closed with fences. Carmena believes the pedestrianisation of the centres, "a global phenomenon", "unstoppable and interesting" but has assured that it will wait for the January 8, 2017, the end of the pilot project to draw any conclusions.

Most streets would follow the measure. The new model of urban mobility Madrid favours the use of bicycles and the city is studying price reductions and even free public transport on the days that the contamination exceeds the limits of safety. The association Ecologists in Action has assessed the levels of nitrogen dioxide during the first week of cuts and has announced that the pollution in the area has fallen below 100 micrograms per cubic meter, figures comparable with those of the great parks of the city.

Even so, the measure has triggered a fierce controversy. Many drivers complain about congestion in neighboring streets. The Association of Merchants of the streets Preciados, Carmen and Arenal (all trade routes and pedestrian areas close to Gran Via), has said that the shops and businesses of the area have had worse sales than last year. On all the car parks in the area claim that they have suffered serious losses and have qualified the measure as a "catastrophe". Some groups have responded by rescuing them from the newspaper archives information when it is closed to cars on these same streets. "In 1969, the traders were opposed to peatonalizar Precious. Today is the most commercial street España. 50 years later history repeats itself", explained from Ecomobility.

The opposition to Carmena, led by the charismatic politics of the right Esperanza Aguirre, has turned the project into a declaration of war, despite the fact that previous mayors of rights also made attempts to close the Gran Via. Aguirre has alleged that the measure is an attack against "the right of citizens to use their cars" and has called those who support the measure as a "fundamentalist environmentalism" and "politicians leery of the freedom of individuals".