Madrid started the renovation of its inner ring road (M-30) to alleviate car pressure on local streets by conveying traffic round this orbital thatsurrounds CBD [central business district]. The project will improve ring capacity and connections with the neighbourhoods. Some sections will be tunnels to avoid pollution and noise. The project costs 4 billion Euro and has big impacts on traffic. Therefore, some proposed to build a boulevard instead of improving the motorway. A new assessment methodology was appliedto evaluate the two options; it includes CBA [cost benefit analysis], environmental and social assessment. It shows that the project will produce positive impacts: investment costs are counterbalanced by time savings, reduction of accidents and other benefits. The rebuilt M-30 will reduce car pressure on urban streets, both in the CBD and in the city periphery. On the contrary, it will attract more cars along the M-30. The environmental assessment is also globally positive, although pollution problems will be more concentrated in the M-30 area. The results indicate that the project should be managed in coordination with other sustainable urban transport strategies: parking control, public transport facilities, pedestrianisation, etc. By implementing this policy package, the expected results mean more balanced traffic patterns with less pressure on CBD. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract