The spokesperson for Ciudadanos (Cs) in the Torrevieja City Council, Pilar Gómez Magán, has asked for the creation of a municipal bicycle service, expansion and improvement to the network of bicycle lanes, which will contribute to the quality of life, improve health and reduce pollution.

She said that the city also needs to increase the number of places to park bicycles in the centre.

“The objective is to provide initiatives to promote a culture of mobility and sustainability and to increase the number of places that can be easily visited by using this form of transport, which will then see the reduction in the use of motorised vehicles”.

This service would require a minimum network of bicycle lanes that the municipality currently lacks with routes developed exclusively for movement by bicycle. Currently the bike lanes are limited to a route several kilometres parallel to the N-332 and CV-905.

There is also a pathway that connects Torrevieja with Los Montesinos but the city is not designed for urban mobility. There are no bike lanes within the town centre, so mobility by this means of transport is impossible as bicycles need to share space with vehicles on highlycongested streets.

Unfortunately the popularity of movement by bicycle, electric bikes and other individual mobility forms, together with the lack of lanes that give priority to their movement, is causing a steadily increasing number of traffic incidents.

Previous governments have publicly committed to developing a network of bike lanes, but unfortunately, none have gone beyond announcements at press conferences.