Since last Monday, February 27th until Sunday, March 5th, Molins de Rei has voted the reform of the National 340 road passing through the town of Baix Llobregat.
Voting took place online or in person at the Citizen Service Office on Saturday, March 4 and Sunday, March 5.
Molinencos and molinencas tunnels could choose between three options developed by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. Electronic voting allows citizens to vote for their preferred option. The results were automatically made public once the electronic ballot box was closed at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The majority of Molinencos and Molinenas want the reform of the Carretera to widen the sidewalks. Proposal C obtained 35.74% of the votes cast in the participatory process organized by the City Council, in which 1,854 people participated. The proposal A, which did not foresee changes in the uses of the road, has obtained 33’41% of the votes and the proposal B, which incorporated a bicycle lane, has been defended by 30 ‘ 86% of the participants in the most important participatory process ever carried out in Molins de Rei.
The Carretera renovation will incorporate wide sidewalks. This has been decided by the residents of Molins de Rei who have expressed themselves throughout the week with their votes in electronic format or approaching this weekend to the Citizen Service Office where they could vote in person. In total, of the 21,012 people who could vote, 2,374 people registered in the citizen participation registry, and of these, 1,854 (78.10%) voted.
Of all the votes cast, 35.74% (659 votes) opted for proposal C, which incorporates the widening of the sidewalks. A 33.41% (616 votes) were for proposal A, which proposed to maintain the current uses of the road. Finally, proposal B, which provided for a segregated bicycle lane, received the least support, with 30.86% (569 votes).
The mayor of Molins de Rei, Joan Ramon Casals, said that the participatory process has been a success and, moreover, has helped us to learn a lot and will be very useful for the future. The mayor commented that the fact that there was so much participation and that the three proposals obtained so many votes shows that all three projects were good and contributed interesting things. Casals also said that from now on we have a path marked by the people themselves and the challenge is to move forward with the proposal C ensuring that it represents a beneficial transformation for the entire city.
For his part, the first deputy mayor, Xavi Paz, stressed that debate has been generated around the reform of the Road with a participatory process that citizens have made it their own. Paz also explained that from now on the government will work to implement the proposal he has chosen for our bet was to transform the municipality making it more attractive and better for everyone. For Paz today we can all be very proud of Molins de Rey.
Finally, the Councilor for Citizen Participation, Laura Soto, was very happy and satisfied with how such an ambitious process has worked. Soto explained that normally this type of process is considered a success if it mobilizes 3% of the population, and we have come very close to 9%, so we have exceeded all expectations. Soto concluded by assuring that the process has been clean and rigorous.
Finally, as for the results of participation, it should be noted that women voted more than men (52.91% compared to 47.09%) and that seven out of ten voters opted for electronic voting. However, until the last minute there have been queues at the Citizen Attention Office to participate in the vote to choose what type of reform should be done on the old N-340 Road. An urban development project that may exceed 6 million euros of investment and that will change the urban landscape of this road axis.