Vision by Llorenç Brunet, Architect
I will say it bluntly. A city organised for cars in the 21st century is not a city. In Mallorca, we have spent decades multiplying lanes, creating roundabouts like propellers, shining medians, and curbs that separate better than any border. And on either side, remnants of what we once called streets. If we accept this inertia, we accept that freedom consists of moving quickly, even if it leads nowhere.
I propose the opposite. I propose measuring freedom by the intensity of human connections, by the quality of shade, by the silence between two sentences on a terrace, by the safety of a child cycling home alone from school. The bicycle and the pedestrian are not urban furniture. They are the very reason for public space. When they coexist, the city breathes. When the car dominates, the city holds its breath.
This is not a romantic notion. It is a political, technical, and cultural decision. And it is urgent in Mallorca, where the climate is favourable, distances are reasonable, and the economy—which depends on hospitality and landscape—thrives when streets are welcoming. There is no quality tourism on avenues that resemble highways. There is no local trade at 50 kilometres per hour. There is no neighbourhood behind a windscreen.
A simple hierarchy
First come pedestrians. Then bicycles. Next, well-served public transport. Cars, last. It is not a war; it is an order. When this order is respected, calm, local business, safety, and beauty emerge. When it is inverted, the street becomes a gutter.
Palma as a laboratory
Palma has three visible decisions that could change its fate:
- A continuous cycling axis from Ponent to Llevant, from Cala Major to Ciudad Jardín, connecting Santa Catalina, el Born, La Lonja, La Seu, Parque del Mar, Portixol, and Molinar. Not a residual lane, but a clear, direct carpet, with real priority at crossings, elevated intersections, and signage that treats the bicycle as what it is: a preferred urban vehicle.
- Avenues at 30 km/h with no through traffic. The belt that currently disperses cars must become a neighbourhood boulevard, with large trees, flush pedestrian crossings, proper bus stops, and safe junctions. Anyone who wants to cross the city by car should do so on the outskirts. The street is for staying.
- Ciutat Antiga without surface-resident cars. Loading and unloading within time windows, well-managed perimeter parking, residents prioritised for cycling and walking, and cargo bike delivery services. Everything else is noise, and noise drives life away.
An island-wide network, not patches
It is not enough to paint sections. Mallorca needs a continuous cycling network between municipalities, prioritising access to schools, markets, health centres, and stations. Inca, Manacor, Sóller, Alcúdia, Pollença, Llucmajor. Straight sections, elevated intersections, proper lighting, water points, and shade. Route designers must think of real people, not models. If a ten-year-old girl can cycle alone, the infrastructure is good.
Add safe bike parking at facilities and squares, incentives for cargo bikes for last-mile logistics, and direct connections with the future tram and bus network, with easy boarding and coordinated timetables. Bicycles and public transport do not compete. They complement each other. They are the fine skeleton of truly free mobility.
The rules of the game
- 30 km/h in genuine urban areas, not decorative ones, with design that calms traffic without constant enforcement.
- Elevated crossings on secondary streets and clear pedestrian priority with continuous pavements.
- Zero surface parking on main streets. That space is for trees, benches, terraces, and stone seating that keeps the shade cool. Cars go to parking lots, like an appliance in its cupboard.
- Fair pricing for occupied space. Parking on public roads cannot be cheaper than living there. Paying to occupy common ground is not a punishment. It is adult and equitable.
- Remove minimum parking requirements for new developments and allow homes without mandatory spaces. Cars cannot be an architectural requirement.
- Schools with school streets. At arrival and departure times, the roadway becomes a playground. We learn the city as we grow.
Not against cars, but for life
The argument of individual freedom always arises. Freedom is confused with power. The car promises freedom because it moves on its own, even if it traps us in a jam. The bicycle demands true freedom: freedom exercised with the body, that smells of bread when passing a bakery, that allows greetings without opening a window, that reminds you the sea is just there, visible between two streets. The bicycle asks for no subscription. It asks for legs and a city that does not expel you.
The economy of shade
Local trade thrives on feet and pedals, not bumpers. A car at 40 km/h does not buy. A comfortable pedestrian returns. A bicycle that parks at the door spends. Busy terraces, cared-for doorways, open shutters, and street conversation sustain more employment than any peripheral commercial area with endless parking. And they build neighbourhoods, the cheapest and most valuable social infrastructure there is.
A method, not a slogan
This is not about one-off campaigns. It is about method. Diagnose by sections, carry out simple and constant works, maintain them. A mobility office with architects, engineers, and landscape designers working with neighbourhoods, not against them. Measure before and after: noise, accidents, sales, bench occupancy, shade temperature. If it doesn’t improve, adjust it. If it does, expand it. The city is a workshop, not a dogma.
Three years, visible results
Year one: main cycling axes, genuine 30 km/h zones, elevated crossings, and school streets in 20 schools.
Year two: remove surface parking on key streets, expand shade, safe bike parking network, cargo bike logistics in historic centres.
Year three: priority intermunicipal connections, public evaluation of indicators, and next round of extensions. No triumphalism. Data, maps, and life.
A sincere closure, from architecture to the passion for living freely
Mallorca does not need more lanes. It needs more streets. It does not need more power. It needs more shared time. The bicycle is not a symbol. It is a tool to return the city to those who make it possible. And the pedestrian is the beginning and the end of any sensible project. If we organise cars, bicycles, and pedestrians with this clarity, the rest will find its place. If we continue confusing speed with progress, we will only perfect the desert.
My proposal borders on radicalism because reality already is radical: children who cannot cross alone, shops that cannot survive, squares filled with immobile metal. Being lukewarm means staying the same. Being brave means returning to the essentials. Putting people first. Making Mallorca an island that can be explored without fear, that can be conversed in, that can be lived. That is the architecture that interests me. That is the freedom I defend.
