Ecologistas en Acción has presented allegations within the framework of the public information process of the Yaiza-Arrecife road Layout Project, promoted by the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Mobility of the Government of the Canary Islands, which aims to duplicate the LZ-40 between the Airport and Puerto del Carmen. With its allegations, the environmental group wants to warn of the environmental and social danger that the execution of said project would entail, with which, they say, "seeks to duplicate the road infrastructure to address alleged retentions at rush hour, without considering sustainable alternatives and more in line with the real needs of the population and the peculiarities of Lanzarote."
The environmental group considers "disproportionate and not very adjusted to the reality of the island to carry out a new road layout in order to solve one hour of retentions a day, at the peak hour of leaving work (3:00-4:00 p.m.)". The association states that "increasing the road infrastructure, with the magnitude that is intended, is not the most successful solution to this problem." They consider that there are other "more appropriate and lasting options to respond to the so-called traffic jams and retentions, that is, solutions that take into account the citizen's interest, and with a lower economic cost, such as implementing a mobility plan that prioritizes efficient and subsidized public transport, which meets the travel frequencies, routes and connections that the population needs."
For this reason, the environmental group has drafted about thirty allegations to the Yaiza-Arrecife road Layout Project. Among them, it is questioned that an investigation has not been carried out on the real mobility needs of the island population that justifies and supports the duplication of the LZ-40. They point out that the project does not take into account the Landscape Guidelines of Lanzarote, something that for Ecologistas en Acción is unacceptable. Each road project, they say, must adhere to the principles of coherence and landscape integration to maintain the Lanzarote Brand, based on respect for its landscapes. The proposed layout, they assure, continues the destruction policy promoted by the Autonomous and Island Administration, because it does not take into account the environmental and landscape impact, ignoring a hallmark of the island.
The environmental group insists on the need to look for alternatives to the duplication of the LZ-40 that "are not so aggressive, nor committed to the present and future of the island." "It bets on a useful mobility plan, that responds to a unified conception of the different roads and not to patches of independent actions, which do not adopt comprehensive measures such as establishing a public transport network or providing public buses to the localities that lack them," they state.
According to Ecologistas en Acción, the layout project proposed by the Ministry "does not take into account the promotion of alternative routes to avoid retention, nor the loss of rustic land associated with the road intervention, in addition -they say in their allegations- it is an invitation to increase the vehicle fleet, without defining limits, or taking into account the island's load capacity." The increase in the average speed of vehicles and the consequent increase in the risk of accidents is another of the negative aspects that the environmental group alleges. For the group it is of "great political irresponsibility to carry out actions that go against reducing the current volume of traffic on the island (140,000 vehicles) and that, in addition, may favor a greater number of accidents, increase the impact on noise and pollution." Something that, according to them, means being governed by criteria far from sustainability and having a very negative impact on the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as required by the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition for 2030.
For Ecologistas en Acción it is "politically incomprehensible that different administrations propose, process and intend to execute new actions on the island's roads, when since 1998 there have been studies that warn of the need to implement a collective transport system that satisfies citizen requirements." The group opposes "this misguided policy of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Lanzarote and criticizes the resistance of the administrations to change the transport model." For this reason, their commitment is "a moratorium on traffic and an effective collective transport policy without adding greater road density."
This type of initiatives, they add, "are vital to reduce the number of cars that circulate on the island's roads and are the best action in favor of the containment, moderation and degrowth demanded by the island's environment and the planet." Therefore, they estimate "that the best alternative is 0, the non-execution of the project."
