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Date Published: 27/04/2022

ARCHIVED - Murcia city plans to create six new park-and-ride car parks by 2023

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Murcia Council wants to remove vehicles from the city centre and alleviate the loss of parking spaces on public roads

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Murcia city plans to create six new park-and-ride car parks by 2023

Six new park-and-ride car parks with more than 2,400 spaces will be created in Murcia by 2023 to rid the city centre of vehicles and promote the use of public transport whilst reducing harmful emissions.

"Imagine a city with more space for pedestrians, less road traffic, efficient public transport, less pollution and more people-friendly spaces. This is what Murcia will be like next year," promised Murcia Mayor, José Antonio Serrano.

The council intends to hold meetings with residents and action groups next week to share full details of the mobility initiaitves and collect feedback, but has revealed that the move will increase parking spaces by 178% as part of a 57.3 million euro investment to "significantly improve public transport, reconfigure urban spaces and generate friendlier and healthier environments".

"The main objectives are to have a public transport system that is attractive in terms of speed and accessibility, to promote sustainable individual transport and the use of personal mobility vehicles whilst facilitating traffic calming in the core of the city through a Low Emission Zone".

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In addition to the park-and-rides, the city council also plans to implement projects to build Bus Rapid Transit (BTR) lanes, intermodal nodes and segregated cycle and bus lanes, complemented by traffic technology initiatives, open data and intelligent transport systems.

As part of the council's technological investment, around 850 cameras will be installed in the city centre, equipped with video analytics software, 60,000 metres of fibre optics and environmental sensors, and the 202 existing traffic lights and regulators will be replaced or updated.

In terms of bus and cycle lanes, the existing road network will be provided with lanes reserved exclusively for public transport and Personal Mobility Vehicles, creating 43 kilometres of bus lanes and 44 kilometres of cycle lanes (22 in each direction).

Ultimately, the local authority hopes to drastically reduce daily inner city private vehicle movements from 615,000 to 404,000.

Work on the mobility projects, which will be partly subsided with Feder and Next Generation EU funds, must begin before November 1 2022 in order to secure the European cash, and be completed by July 31 2023.

"A project of this magnitude will mean great improvements but also some changes in the way of mobility, so we want to listen to all citizens, traders and groups and explain first hand the benefits of the initiatives during meetings from next week," assured the mayor.

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Image: Ayuntamiento de Murcia

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