Red Ciudadana de Sevilla

 THE TRAMWAY THAT ENCOURAGES THE USE OF PRIVATE VEHICLES

On February 20, 2020, the plenary session of the Seville City Council irrevocably approved the Special Plan for the reserved track right-of-way of the overground Light Rail, the San Bernardo-Santa Justa section, the so-called “extension of the Tramway".

We have repeated it many times. This action is not new, in 2008 a first Tram Expansion Project was approved from Prado de San Sebastián to Santa Justa, by the then municipal government (PSOE and IU coalition) headed by Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín. 

That project linked the construction of underground car parks on San Francisco Javier Avenue, Santa Justa and the Sevilla FC Stadium, among others to this work, according to Manuel Marchena, in January 2008, then vice-president of the Seville Council Economic Interest (AIE) and Manager of the Urban Planning Department.

The new expansion project approved in 2020 replicates that first project in terms of layout and also comes with the construction of underground parking lots in the area.

The Special Plan for the extension of the tram only acknowledges the following the Pay and Display and/or Resident parking places existing in the area:

However, to get an idea of ​​what the existence of these parking lots means, it is necessary to know the movement of vehicles that they represent, although the Special Plan does not specify these data.

Red Ciudadana de Sevilla has obtained data on the movement of vehicles, parking lots and on-street loading-unloading spaces of the Nervión Plaza and El Corte Inglés Nervión Shopping Centers, with the following outcome regarding  the year 2017:

The Construction Project states that the expansion will reduce private vehicle traffic and its polluting emissions. This is just one more lie of this document since there are important contradictions.

Firstly, the project keeps the same number of lanes for traffic circulation and maintains surface parking.

Furthermore, neither the Special Plan nor the construction project take into account the impact on the circulation of vehicles produced by the new parking lots already in operation and those to be built in the area due to the approved urban action planning in the last two years.

The new car parks already in operation and those to be built in the area are the following:

This increase in the supply of car parks will produce a huge effect on the private vehicle, as the number of spots currently available will be doubled.

The transit and arrival of vehicles to the Old Town will be limited and they will be redirected to this area, which is the first ring with large underground parking lots and various connections and ways of public transport.

The Head of Security and Mobility at Seville City Council, Juan Carlos Cabrera, stated it publicly in July 2019, indicating that “they would continue working in the current mandate to start up other parking lots, while vehicles are being limited in the Old Town", and added, that they were committed to having deterrent parking "in important intermodal areas, such as San Bernardo or Santa Justa. "

Traffic congestion is unavoidable and the creation of a greater offer of parking spaces is not a solution, since facilitating traffic encourages greater use of the car. Transportation, the movement of goods and people, is the largest predator of space and energy. It is the main responsible for the emissions of polluting gases and greenhouse effect; the increase in temperatures (urban heat island effect); environmental noise; of urban degradation; it seriously damages the health of its inhabitants and imposes a lifestyle on them.

The municipal government seems to forget that the Public Transport Network is a "structure determined system" that marks the model of the city, as contemplated by the Andalusian Urban Planning Law (LOUA).

Public transport must necessarily replace private transport, but the determined commitment of the municipal governments of Seville to maintain and encourage private transport only means a predatory urban planning of public space.

This area will be "the golden mile of parking lots and pollution", a true "Ground Zero".