This is how the Government sees what the future cities of Spain will be like in 2050

More space for the citizen and prominence of public transport in cities. This is the vision that the Government has of the future cities of Spain in 2050, as commented by the General Secretary for Transport of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, María José Rallo, in an interview with colleagues from Business Insider.

In this interview, María José Rallo outlines what she would like Spanish cities to be like in 27 years: “I would like to see the cities mainly friendlier and that implies that they are cleaner, more inclusive, more balanced.”

In this sense, the General Secretary of Transport has been working on different aspects for some time. One of them is that the citizen must recover part of the public space and, to achieve this, it is necessary to promote the use of public transport, displacing private cars.

Thus, Rallo maintains that “public transport is one of the essential elements for the daily life of all citizens, it is the mass form of transport and, therefore, the backbone. That is why it must be the center of urban and metropolitan mobility”.

This is how the Government sees what the future cities of Spain will be like in 2050

However, “to recover public space for the citizen, there is no other way to do it than with a toolbox. In other words, it is not a single measure, but basically we have to implement many measures that can contribute to it ”, acknowledges the General Secretary of Transport.

Among these measures, María José Rallo highlights “the creation of low emission zones and lanes for bicycles or the expansion of sidewalks” to control traffic. This, basically, “represents a reduction in space so that the car goes slower,” she says.

These measures “do not have to be very complicated,” Rallo tells Business Insider. In addition, “among the set of measures that each city council can implement, each city has to establish those that it considers most adapted to its socioeconomic and sociocultural reality,” he adds.

Prominence of public transport

For María José Rallo, public transport should be the main axis of mobility in cities, although this should not translate into a complete abandonment of the private vehicle: “There will have to be space for the vehicle, of course, but the city does not have to be 70% or 80% dedicated to the vehicle”.

For the Government, according to Rallo, it is a priority for citizens to recover the space that previously belonged to them and recalls that “things that ten years ago had a great social rejection, today are accepted as normal.”

The General Secretary for Transport closed the interview by emphasizing that she felt sure that “it is a social requirement, because many cities, at least in Europe, are already doing it. People want a friendly and non-aggressive city”. Something that will be possible with the use of new technologies and those that will arrive in the coming years.