12 lanes for one car: Madrid's ghost development zone

12 lanes, one car and an empty petrol station: the development zone nobody uses

Madrid has a 12-lane avenue along which a single vehicle travels. It is not a design error: it is a PAU, an urban development plan (plan de actuación urbanística) conceived to house thousands of new residents who have not yet arrived. The account of a driver who went to one of these ghost neighbourhoods to fill up with CNG —10% cheaper than the average— captures the paradox: twelve pumps, two idle police patrols and a science-fiction landscape.

The user travelled to the far end of the PAU to save a few cents on compressed natural gas, after the energy company raised its rates noticeably. What he found was a colossal avenue with four lanes in each direction plus two service roads, where he was the only one driving. "You have to pack a snack to cross the street," he jokes. The petrol station, with twelve pumps, had hardly any customers.

The PAU responds to a logic of urban anticipation: according to sources in the debate, these expansion areas are designed to absorb the arrival of thousands of new Spaniards. "That's why the 6 lanes (or 12 in total)", points out one analysis, which warns that Madrid's north-western sierra is, for now, the only place spared. The reality is that the expected growth has not yet materialised, leaving oversized infrastructure behind.

With demographic moderation and the rising cost of natural gas, these PAUs resemble full-scale models. The promise of an avalanche of residents remains up in the air. If gas keeps going up, perhaps more drivers will venture into these wastelands in search of cheap fuel, but for now the landscape is one of planned desolation.