The Council of Mallorca has announced that it is working on a draft law to regulate vehicle entry to the island, a measure that follows the model implemented in Ibiza and seeks to reduce traffic congestion detected in the first traffic study carried out on the island. According to the island council, the regulations are being drawn up in record time after it was revealed that in 2023 almost 400,000 vehicles arrived by sea. This figure has set alarm bells ringing in government, which claims that the situation has been exacerbated by years of political inaction.
The future law of the Council of Mallorca will include three key measures to control vehicle access to the island: Restriction on vehicles that are not taxed or registered in the Balearics.
Introduction of a tax on vehicles entering Mallorca by sea.
Limit on the number of rental cars authorised to circulate on the island.
According to the island's Minister for Mobility and Territory, Fernando Rubio, this regulation will be a necessary tool to ensure road sustainability, and is supported by technical and legal reports already in progress. The measure has been strongly defended by the island's Partido Popular leaders, who accuse previous progressive governments of having looked the other way for eight years while traffic and tourist car rentals increased progressively.
‘It's almost comical that left-wing parties are now complaining about congestion when it's a direct consequence of their management,’ said Councillor Magdalena Garcia, who pointed the finger directly at the former president of the Council of Mallorca, Catalina Cladera, for blocking similar measures during her term in office.
With this regulation, Mallorca joins the line taken by the Ibiza Council, a pioneer in establishing limits on vehicle entry to mitigate traffic congestion. The draft is currently being drawn up with the technical and legal support of the island council itself.
In Ibiza, people with homes in Ibiza whose vehicle is registered outside the Balearics are only allowed to have only one vehicle per property. This is intended to reduce the number of foreign-registered cars and indeed cars that are registered elsewhere in Spain.
If a resident's relatives visit the island and bring their own car, they will have to request authorisation and pay the corresponding fee through an online system that the Council of Ibiza will be introducing shortly.