The mayoress of Arrecife, Eva de Anta, has announced her intention to carry out the consultation on the traffic restriction on the Maritime Avenue once the conditioning and painting project of the road is executed that she has presented this Tuesday, and that she affirms that it is "a key action to fairly check the opinion of the citizens".
"While the perception of risk and the speed of passage of cars are the current ones, doing the consultation would be neither fair nor of interest", she highlighted in the presentation to the media. In the same line, the Councilor for Mobility of the capital's City Council, Inodelvia Torres, stated that the objective of the intervention "is to finalize the transformation of the avenue, from a road for the free and massive transit of vehicles to a place of coexistence of people with bicycle traffic, public transport and private cars of neighbors, merchants and loading and unloading".
In the press conference, the government group has defended that the work destined to boost the Open Commercial Zone of the Avenue "was left unfinished" by not intervening on the asphalt strip whose passage of vehicles was intended to be restricted. In this regard, they affirm that "although the signaling of pedestrian priority space has partially worked as a tool to deter general road traffic, the reduction of the speed of those who can pass and the consequent pedestrian ownership of the road are pending subjects".
A "light, economical and simple" intervention
The companies GEA 21 and Improvistos have been respectively responsible for the new design and adaptation of the Avenue, through painting and installation of street furniture, and its communication and collection of opinions among the main actors involved.
The urban planner Marcos Montes reported on the adaptation project, an intervention that he defined as "light, economical and simple" and "that, however, will radically transform the appearance and uses of the area, as has already happened in many other places in the world".
Gonzalo Navarrete, from the firm Improvistos, explained the "communication effort" and collection of opinions from more than twenty institutions, social and cultural entities, companies and businesses, transport services and technicians from the different administrations on the work. As he indicated, "this is not a quantitative work, because logically it is not possible to reach the entire population, but it has allowed us to access groups with a defined position and a lot to contribute but who do not have the possibility of being heard".
Thanks to the Foundation
The mayoress De Anta took the opportunity to thank the "collaboration and advice" of the César Manrique Foundation, "which with its usual generosity and a firm conviction and respect for sustainable mobility, have given us the use of some images of the artist and have offered us interesting advice".
Regarding the cost and deadlines, she said that once the project is finished with the contributions and suggestions obtained in the communication process, "both issues can be assessed and announced".
After the presentation to the media, this afternoon the intervention project will be presented to the public in a public event at the "Agustín de la Hoz" House of Culture.
