Elche, Spain, scraps low-emission zones and bike lanes

Elche dismantles its bike lanes: the first shift in urban mobility

The Elche City Council, governed by PP and Vox trinc the May 28 elections, has decided to abandon low-emission zones and remove the city's main bicycle lanes: those on Avenida Juan Carlos I, Mariano Soler Olmos Street, and José María Buck. The city had previously been awarded by the Network of Cities for Climate, dependent on the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, for its sustainable mobility and fight against climate change. This pivot marks the first confirmed setback in the ecological transition trinc the right-wing advance in regional and municipal elections, according to the media outlet reporting the news.

What is being removed in Elche and what it cost to maintain it

The outgoing plan projected more than 10 kilometers of bike lanes or shared platforms, the modernization of urban buses towards hybrid or electric models, and moving parking to the outskirts of neighborhoods. The stated goal was to reduce private vehicles, which account for 80% of the municipality's polluting emissions. Coalition partners argue they will promote efficient transport use, but "without impositions or guardianship," and will do away with mandatory low-emission zones.

Acting Councillor for Mobility, Esther Díez, called the measure a "barbarity" and warned that reversing the bike lanes will cost the new government team the same money already invested in building them. The economic argument is the most troubling: paying twice for the same work, once to build and once to demolish.

Why bike lanes are being removed: traffic jams and single lanes

Among the arguments circulating in the debate, it is claimed that one of the affected sections left one of the main arteries leading to the general hospital with a single lane, complicating the passage of ambulances and emergency services. It is also stated that on main roads with two lanes per direction, converting to a single lane for cars has generated traffic jams that collapse nearby roundabouts and cause congestion where there was none before. The result, according to these critics, is more pollution: stationary cars burning fuel next to an underused bike lane.

Some clarify that it is not about eliminating all bike lanes, but specific sections that hinder more than help. The distinction matters, because the headline suggests a general dismantling that the facts do not entirely confirm.

The contagion effect: from Elche to Valencia and Gijón

The announcement is not an isolated case. Vox's candidate for the Valencia City Council, Juan Manuel Bádenas, recorded an election sketch carrying a large hydraulic drill on his shoulder, demanding the dismantling of bike lanes. At the regional level, PP and Vox published a government program with fifty measures containing no mention of the climate crisis, renewable energies, or sustainable mobility.

In Gijón, Mayor Carmen Moriyón (Foro), inaugurated with the support of PP and Vox, announced that the city will restore bullfighting after three years of absence and has already taken initial steps to eliminate circulation and parking restrictions for cars without environmental badges. The pattern repeats: fewer car restrictions, less cycling infrastructure.

What experts say about local competencies

Environmental scientist and sustainability consultant Andreu Escrivà warns that regional and local power has passed into the hands of those who do not prioritize environmental costs and, in the worst cases, govern parties that deny climate science. Xan López, political ecology expert, points out that the greatest municipal risk is the lack of adaptation to extreme weather events: droughts, heat waves, torrential rains. Alberto Coronel, Political Ecology researcher at Complutense University, summarizes that local institutions can be a lever for a transition based on hate or a fulcrum for a rational ecological transition.

The underlying argument is that regions and municipalities have key competencies for energy and ecological transitions to occur, and for them to be fair. If these governments stall, the damage multiplies because the local scale is where policies are executed.

The debate over the unused bike lane

The fundamental discussion is not ideological, but about urban design. Some argue that a bike lane on a sidewalk shared with pedestrians generates accidents involving pedestrians, the elderly, and people with reduced mobility, and that the lane should be on the roadway, signposted, never on a shared sidewalk. Others point out that lanes are useless if pedestrians are allowed to invade them and cyclists ride on the road: as long as these two rules persist, they only enrich the contractor of the day.

There are also those who defend that sport cyclists traveling at 30 or 35 kilometers per hour do not need a segregated lane, but the roadway. And those who recall that in cities where a traffic lane was removed to insert bikes, the result has been more congestion and more emissions, with the lane empty. The operational question is how many users justify the project.

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The Elche precedent leaves an uncomfortable figure: paying twice for the same meters of asphalt. And an unanswered question: if the bike lane is removed due to the traffic jams it causes, what happens to the cars causing them?