Results of a survey on urban mobility choices conducted in 5 major Spanish cities

The Spanish Organisation of Consumers and Users (La fuerza de tus decisiones) recently conducted a survey on how urban mobility is perceived in maor Spanish cities.  During the survey, 1,421 people between the ages of 25 and 74 living in the urban perimeter of the five most populous cities in Spain were questioned about their transport decisions in their daily life.  Residents of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Zaragoza were all included in the survey.

The results that emerged from the survey are interesting. Residents in Madrid proved to be the most satisfied with their transport network, especially concerning train and subway connections. The car is also very present, despite traffic jams, parking difficulties and poor overall road maintenance. A marginal role is covered by cycling mobility. Barcelona has the highest ratio of motorcyclists riding among all five cities: the frequency of traffic jams and the difficulties in car parking seem to contribute to this. Barcelona also stands out for its good public transport network, although it is considered an expensive service by residents, while more limited is the use of bikes. In Valencia public transport seems to be less used, despite the high number of kilometers of tracks for metro and trams. More popular means of transport are cars and bicycles. Seville is the city with the highest number of kilometres of cycle lanes per inhabitant and also the one that counts the highest percentage of motorcyclists. Despite traffic jams and parking difficulties, the potential of public transport seems to be not fully exploited, according to the survey. Lastly, Zaragozans are among the most satisfied with the different ways their city offers to move around. There are few traffic jams, good parking facilities, more than acceptable conditions for cycling and a relatively good public transport network.

Residents in all cities seem to be already aware of the poor air quality present in urban areas due to pollution, and respondents share the opinion that additional measures are needed, such as the following ones:

• public transport should be reinforced on days of high pollution peaks (96% of respondents);
• the authorities should use tax incentives to promote the purchase of low-polluting, electric-type, or hybrid vehicles (92 %);
• the authorities should ban or at least limit the use of highly polluting vehicles (81%);
• on days of high pollution, car use should be restricted (77%

Source: Story first published in May on Ocu.org