As early as one year from now, motorcyclists will have to leave their vehicles in subterranean parking lots, allowing pedestrians to enjoy the consequently more spacious sidewalks. The Urban Ecology and Mobility Department, along with the mayoralty of Barcelona, has held negotiations with the three major parking area operators in the city. As a result, these companies have been entrusted with the development of new parking use options for the motorcyclists. Some of the new parking measures, especially those enforced in the city districts considered to be controversial in regard to motorcyclists, are expected to come into effect in the nearer future. The problematic areas include the portion of Via Laietana next to the Cathedral, els Jardinets de Gràcia, and la Plaza Urquinaona.
The larger project is still in the initial stages of development, and other new measures will be subject to more thorough consideration. In the meantime, municipal district authorities have been compiling lists of the most overloaded pedestrian spaces in the city. The next stage of the new initiative will include police visits to the areas listed and the tracking of parking-related violations. These procedures were introduced mid-March in some districts, such as Gràcia, l’Eixample, and Sarrià-Sant Gervasí. It seems that illegal parking in Barcelona has witnessed its final days, and there no longer will be any tolerance for it; the main priority now is the pedestrian.
Barcelona already boasts 68,250 parking lots for motorcycles, of which 63,179 are located on roadways and 5,071 on sidewalks. In the case that no vacant lots are available on the roadway, the law allows for the possibility to park on the sidewalk, provided that a set of criteria is met. There are an estimated 220,000 motorcycles and nearly 60,000 mopeds in the Catalonian capital.