The City Council is to apply different measures to improve mobility in the neighbourhood of La Salut, in the area around Park Güell, one of the busiest places in the city. Three measures will be implemented: enlarging the area where traffic restrictions apply, relocating and reorganising taxi ranks and boosting the bus lines used the most by tourists.

Enlarging the area for local residents only

A new bollard will be installed on the corner of the streets of Pare Jacint Alegre and Escorial, exclusively for local residents, who will have a card giving them access. An intercom will also be installed to regulate access for taxis carrying or picking up local residents.

This will stop other vehicles from using the approaches to the park and circulating within the neighbourhood. The bollard will replace the current one, located in C/ Marianao with Rambla de Mercedes, enlarging the restricted traffic area considerably.

Reorganisation of taxi ranks

Another measure is to do away with the taxi rank in Rambla de Mercedes, a long-standing demand among local residents, who complained of coexistence and mobility problems. From now on, the main taxi rank in the area will be in Crtra. Carmel, which will be enlarged from the current 4 places to 12.

This spatial reorganisation will be completed with a new taxi rank of four places on the corner of the streets of Mare de Déu de la Salut and Escorial. The new stop will be outside the restricted area and the street will need to be widened to create it.

More vehicles for bus lines

TMB has made changes to improve services, adding extra buses on the lines that reach La Salut and Park Güell. The 116 neighbourhood bus has been removed from browsing apps in a bid to avoid it getting overcrowded, with an additional vehicle also provided on Saturdays and public holidays when necessary.

Line 24 has also been strengthened with another vehicle on Saturdays and public holidays, as has the V19, with another vehicle on Saturdays and two more on public holidays. Three more vehicles should be added on the V19 line during the weekends in the summer, along with another five available for the V19 and the 24, depending on needs. These increases will be adjusted according to demand and the effects of the measures applied.

Inspections and surveillance on all three lines will be increased, with improvements also made to signage inside the vehicles.

Online sales only

In addition, as from 1 July, Park Güell will stop selling physical tickets on the site and visitors will only be able to purchase tickets in advance online. The idea is to encourage scheduled visitors, generate staggered access and visitor flows at the park and avoid unnecessary journeys.

Online-only sales will enable the ticket booths at the park to be put to other uses, for instance as information points, for group management, resolution of problems, refunds etc.