Permanent closure of Gran Vía to traffic; it will soon become a semi-pedestrian avenue

Madrid is becoming the stage for an endless series of changes aimed at reducing the air pollution that the city currently suffers. Over the past year, all kinds of bans have been imposed on combustion-engine vehicles; one need only recall the intermittent closures of the central “almendra” or the speed limit reductions. There is also a regulation for taxis restricting them to ECO-labelled models. The latest of these measures brought forward the closure of central Madrid to traffic from next year.

A few weeks later, the Madrid City Council has informed us that Gran Vía (included in the zone where traffic was already set to be prohibited from 2018) will be closed to private traffic starting in December. A slight advance in dates; what is new is that from January, work will begin that will make the city’s central artery a more comfortable place for pedestrians.

The measure announced by the Madrid City Council will take effect next December and will be permanent (something that did not happen last year when the same initiative was applied), while the redevelopment project will start in early 2018. The aim of the works is for Gran Vía to go from offering three lanes per direction to offering two. This means the pavements will be able to expand their pedestrian space and that only authorised vehicles, bicycles and public transport will be allowed on the roadway. This will be the image of the Madrid artery after the redevelopment:

“The idea is to begin the redevelopment works right after Christmas so that Gran Vía can already operate on the basis of that pavement expansion,” said the Deputy Mayor for Sustainable Urban Development of Madrid City Council, José Manuel Calvo, in an interview with Onda Cero.

The closure of private traffic on Gran Vía will bring a dramatic drop in traffic on its roadway. Currently around 50,000 vehicles circulate daily; it is estimated that from January that figure will fall to around 10,000. “It will be a much friendlier street, very green, as Mayor Manuela Carmena wishes, with spaces to sit and enjoy, and to give priority to pedestrians, the great forgotten,” Calvo says.