Ideas to not waste 300 million euros

The presentation a few days ago of the new section of Palma's second ring road recalled, as ARABalears explains, those times indelible in our memory of the “Majorcan-style roads” of Maria Antònia Munar. Works presented with good canapés, marquees and, above all, a lot of nerve. Because they intended to make citizens believe that laying more asphalt was solving mobility.

This in the 2000s, in such a small territory, wanting to make people believe that one more branch, one more lane, would be beneficial, was an absurdity. Now, in the year 2026, we have already learned that it is recklessness. The new lanes, it has become more than clear on the ring road, fail months after their existence.

The technicians know it, they usually tell the politicians, but the pressure to want to come up with a quick solution and be able to say that thing about “we are doing things” is greater than any coherence and coordinated action. If you want to clear traffic jams, you have to start by stopping the spread of the population by letting chalets be built everywhere. The urbanizations that grew without planning for years, and the towns that have been built more thanks to, for example, the other jewel in the crown, the Llucmajor-Campos [highway], now clog up the entrance to Palma even more.

With 300 million, which is what this provincial nonsense will cost, school transport could be provided for several generations. Removing the parents' cars, which saturate towns and cities every morning, midday and afternoon, would be a much more effective measure.

And creating an EMT [Municipal Transport Company] with buses every five minutes and less radial. And not unlocking new tourist spots as the Council of Mallorca has done. Anything but laying more asphalt. Mind you, surely the big construction companies would grumble. And that is scary. A lot.