The Círculo Ecuestre hosted on Monday the colloquium Mobility in Barcelona, under debate, led by Josep Mateu, president of the RACC, and Albert Batlle, deputy mayor for Safety and Prevention at Barcelona City Council.
After the welcome from the vice president of the Círculo Ecuestre, Enrique Lacalle, and the presentation of the institution's third vice president, Ignacio Marull, the speakers held a dialogue with Enric Sierra, deputy director of La Vanguardia, who moderated the event.
The moderator began the dialogue by asking the speakers about the situations of collapse and traffic that the city of Barcelona experiences on a daily basis.
The president of the RACC, Josep Mateu, pointed out that "the biggest aggravating factors for traffic in the city of Barcelona are the restrictions carried out by the municipal government", referring to "the elimination of chamfers or the reduction of traffic lanes". Batlle agreed with the position of the president of the RACC stating that "there is a problem of connectivity with public transport in the metropolitan area", to which Mateu added an important piece of information: "80% of the drivers who go to the Eixample come from outside Barcelona”.
Faced with this problem, Batlle called for "creating parking areas in all large cities in the metropolitan area so that they can park at the entrance and use public transport in Barcelona". He also added that "one of the problems that encourages the use of private vehicles is the Rodalies de Catalunya service, which leaves much to be desired."
During the dialogue, Mateu stressed the need to offer a good public transport service: "more than cheap public transport, what we want is reliable and quality public transport". The president of the RACC also expressed that "if we want safer, cleaner, more sustainable mobility that is compatible with economic progress, we must bet on mobility decision-making carried out through programming, communication and consensus".
During the interview, the speakers agreed on the "need to recover the metropolitan culture to improve mobility". They opined that "there must be legislation that requires coordination in different aspects, such as mobility". In this sense, Josep Mateu stressed the "need to create a public-private mobility agency at the metropolitan level".
After reviewing some controversies in terms of mobility, the moderator of the event wanted to ask the opinion of the speakers on the creation of bike lanes at the entrances to Barcelona. Given this, Albert Batlle opined that "bicycles have become a mobility agent in Barcelona that does not have to be negative, but that has to be integrated and disciplined". For his part, Josep Mateu recalled "the needs of the population over 65 years of age, who need to move safely on foot and the use of private cars or taxis to get around". The spokespersons also agreed on the "need to increase the sanctions to be able to discipline the users of personal mobility vehicles", as was done with motorcycles.
Within the framework of the colloquium held at the Círculo Ecuestre, Mateu was against the elimination of loading and unloading areas with the removal of chamfers. The president of the RACC explained that "Barcelona is a city that needs to be supplied" and that for this reason "it is necessary to have this type of space". Albert Batlle joined the reflection, alleging that "Cerdà created the chamfers to improve mobility and we have broken it", for which he said that "we should make a great reflection and improve road safety education, adapting it to the habits of the present and the future".
The speakers also gave their opinion on the pacification of streets in the city of Barcelona, defending this practice in some areas such as the old quarters and questioning its application in streets such as Consell de Cent. Afterwards, they talked about some of the tactical urban planning decisions carried out by the municipal government, before which, according to Mateu, "the older members of the RACC, accustomed to the use of private vehicles, are complaining about what is happening , while young people are more favorable to the use of all kinds of modes of transport”.
To end the interview, the deputy director of La Vanguardia asked the experts about the Low Emission Zone. When asked, the speakers called for "common legislation on the Low Emission Zone throughout the Barcelona Metropolitan Area", in order to "prevent each metropolitan municipality from making its own law". "We must modulate and correct some of the most fundamentalist elements in relation to this issue", they concluded.