It is undeniable that the cities and towns of Europe that are opening up to development are doing so by inverting the mobility pyramid. Until a few decades ago, the structure was as follows:
1. Private transport (car)
2. Service vehicles or goods transport
3. Buses or Taxis
4. Bicycle or limited speed vehicles
5. Pedestrian
When this should change to:
1. Pedestrian
2. Bicycle or limited speed vehicles
3. Buses or Taxis
4. Service vehicles or goods transport
5. Private transport (car)
As you may be thinking, the first structure is what is experienced in Lanzarote or in areas where politics only has a mediating role in the economic and not social sphere. Luckily, in recent times there has been a revolution in mobility. Cities with a vision for the future of the entire planet, such as Pontevedra, San Sebastián or Medellín, are betting on measures to democratize this sector, making it the raison d'être of the cohesion of the peoples.
Lanzarote has improved in service provision in this regard, but it is still far from inverting the pyramid of means to adapt it to the times, times that want to put people first. Buses do not compete with private transport, they only complement their offer in a rather precarious way.
What is the reason that sanity in transport management does not reach the island? The answer is not simple, nor does it have only one, but we can define the main impediments. On the one hand, there are some of the car rental companies, mostly these control a larger part of the dealerships in Lanzarote. Because of this, some act as a pressure group to prevent or hinder the development of ambitious policies, forgetting their social responsibility. On the other hand, there is the political philosophy of an island that does not quite understand that public management is not only about mediating between economic sectors, but also about striving to achieve measures that promote the common good. Also, the sector of transport vehicles with drivers conditions a large part of the political agenda on this issue, establishing a part of this, discourses that make the buses do not reach in a correct way to the neuralgic centers of mobility such as the airport or the different ports of the island. In another focus, some of the large companies in the island's fabric want cars to be able to reach the entrance of their shopping centers, putting public opinion on a war footing whenever there is a pedestrianization project on the table. Finally, there is our responsibility to understand private transport as a privilege and something contrary to democratization. We want to go to buy bread by car, we go shopping by car, we want to go to see anything by car and in that way we forget about people who can not drive or have access to a car. All these variables have something in common, selfishness.
Selfishness is that people in the villages are forced to acquire a car for not having access to the transport network. Selfishness is that a family that comes to see the island from another country or a local family have to go through the box either renting or buying a car to see the nature. Selfishness is to sentence to ostracism the businesses and territories that can not connect with the others, or those people who need to go to the hospital and have no other choice than to pay overcosts to access health care. Public transport is not only an act of democratic balance and one of the most important tools to attend to the equality of citizens, it is also an element of territorial and commercial cohesion.
The island's policy has to start fighting not for the particular interest of a few people or social groups, but for the population as a whole and the measures that attend to the general interest. It is in mobility, where as a society we can begin to give answers to the challenges that we must attend to. An efficient ordering and planning makes carbon emissions are reduced, there is a commercial and knowledge exchange among many other benefits. In short, Lanzarote has among its weaknesses, a pending issue that must be undertaken as soon as possible if it wants to connect with the world.
