Ecologistas en Acción urges the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands to halt all projects to expand roads, new roundabouts and new road layouts on the island of Lanzarote, and asks them to draw up an Island Road Plan in which all existing roads are integrated, maximizing their use, respecting the island's landscape and promoting collective and free public transport.
The environmental organization demands a comprehensive study of the landscape impact in the proposed expansion from Yaiza to Playa Blanca, taking into account low-impact alternatives, integrating the bicycle lane, returning heavy traffic to the old road and incorporating more bus service to facilitate the transfer of labor personnel to each workplace.
It also denounces "how far the interest, punctually shown by the Island Administration, of mimicking the interventions as has happened in the past in Timanfaya or in the section of road that goes to the Cueva de los Verdes, has gone. And it criticizes how far the policy of the current corporation is from sustainable planning and projecting the rational use of existing roads so that new breaks in the island's surface are not necessary." For this reason, Ecologistas en Acción demands that "the "spirit of Lanzarote" be recovered in all its meaning, which respects the landscape values, as in the Salinas de Janubio and the entire surroundings of the Timanfaya National Park."
Based on this "Lanzarote spirit", the environmental group considers that "the expansion of the Yaiza-Playa Blanca road should be avoided." The association also values as "a waste the intended project of the LZ5 of Playa Honda, currently being drafted, and whose layout runs parallel to the outer ring road planned by the City Council of San Bartolomé of the industrial-commercial area of Playa Honda."
Aware of the environmental cost of this initiative, Ecologistas en Acción insists on studying alternatives that do not include the consumption of new land and demands a unified project of the LZ5 from Indelasa to Argana, with the outer ring road of Playa Honda, throughout the route in which they run in parallel and stop the project of the expansion of the LZ40 from Indelasa to El Toro, study the integration with the new access to the airport from the south, agreed with Aena, and propose easy solutions to the midday traffic jams at the exit of Matagorda to the LZ40.
Precisely, in relation to the remodeling project of the César Manrique Airport, which is being drafted, the environmental association asks the Cabildo that, in the agreement signed with Aena, "the "Lanzarote spirit" is also maintained and they request to know which people are part of the artistic advice that the project will have to guarantee the seal of the Lanzarote brand."
For Ecologistas en Acción, recovering the "Lanzarote spirit" requires respecting the territory and the landscape, avoiding putting the island ecosystems at risk with the road network that crosses the island. An island 20 km wide, in which, according to the environmental organization, large road infrastructures such as highways should not be necessary but public transport should, and awareness campaigns that motivate citizens to collaborate in reducing emissions should.
