No “Day Without Cars” for Palma, says Mayor Cirer

Joan Collins PALMA did not join in the “Day Without Cars”, which took place yesterday, as the Mayor, Catalina Cirer, said that citizens would not accept a day of car restrictions. The RACC (Catalonia Royal Automobile Club) and Palma council will jointly develop a road education programme for students and older people in schools and residential centres on the islands, in order to introduce an improvement in road safety and mobility within Palma. The collaboration agreement coincided with European Mobility Week and Days Without Cars, according to the Mayor of Palma. She commented that, at the moment, the “Day Without Cars is not a viable proposition as the citizens of Palma would not accept a day of restrictions of using their cars,” which is why they (RACC and Palma council) are planning the road education programme. Training and information are the pillars of this collaboration agreement between the RACC and the council. The objective is to promote information campaigns about road safety and the environment, and to make drivers aware of the necessity to drive with caution. The RACC's Representative in the Balearics, Rafael Nicolau, said that two educational programmes will be run for the groups who walk most, children and older people. He insisted that concepts of sustained mobility had to be instilled in people's minds, along with the promotion of public and low contamination means of transport and interest encouraged in the various transport options. In addition to this, he said that the educational programme for students would be run in February and March, in selected schools. At the same time, the programme directed at older people would be run between November and December in old people's centres in classes of no more than 25. “In this way we will be able to determine what their difficulties are when they go out onto the public roads, and to improve their quality of life, as roads are no longer as they were in their day”, said Nicolau. The Executive Secretary of the RACC Foundation, Alfonso Perona, said that it is the second time that both parties have signed an agreement, adding that they regarded education as very important as they believe that the information could reduce the number of deaths on the roads. With regard to the 260 people who have already lost their driving licences in Spain, the RACC said it supported the driving licence points system and considered this figure to be very low.