TW
2

Gridlock, just about sums it up. A journey from Arenal to Bunyola which should have taken about 20 minutes took me an hour last week. Why? Because the ring road around Palma has become one giant traffic jam.

The problem has been made worse by Real Mallorca playing in the first division. On one match day earlier this month when Real Mallorca were playing Atletico Madrid I was stuck in a traffic jam for 90 minutes.

Now, you would have thought that the local authorities would have put some diversions in place with 20,000 people descending on the Son Moix stadium for a game which was being played just before rush hour. But no, so traffic around the city basically came to a standstill.

The local authorities are quick to blame the large number of hired cars on the roads and they might have a point ...but these same traffic jams also take place during the winter months, so it is not really the fault of the poor tourist.

There are simply too many cars on the road and something needs to be done. At one stage there were plans to build a second ring road around Palma but these plans were shelved because of environmental concerns. The local authorities need to encourage more people to leave their cars at home and make more use of the excellent public transport network. Otherwise the only solution will be to build more roads which will cause even greater environmental problems. The time for talking has ended, now it is time for action.