The A-7 road between Marbella and Malaga is choking under the weight of thousands of vehicles daily, as desperate commuters face hours stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Credit: Pexels, Stan
Credit: Pexels, Stan
The A-7 road between Marbella and Malaga is choking under the weight of thousands of vehicles daily, as desperate commuters face hours stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Malaga Residents Demand Urgent Action as A-7 Road Congestion Crisis Worsens.
Fed-up residents along the Costa del Sol have started voicing their concern as the situation worsens, but local leaders say there’s no end to the nightmare in sight.
A Daily Commute from the Depths of Hell
12km gridlocks, fuming drivers, blazing heat, missed appointments and school drop-offs. This is a daily occurrence on the stretch of the A-7 road between Marbella and Malaga. The situation is so dire that local leaders have had to call for an emergency meeting following outrage from local residents.
A Growing Crisis
Malaga’s rapid growth has spiralled out of control in recent years, and its infrastructure is now quivering under the relentless pressure. With some 65,000 people commuting daily, the situation is steadily becoming unsustainable.
Commuters are trapped in a web of congestion spanning from the A-7 east, MA-21, to the old N-340 and the western ring road and beyond. Roads have become a daily battleground for drivers desperate to get home to their loved ones.
Seven-year-old Macson Oliver describes how he can no longer go home after school because the commute from Marbella to Benalmadena, which used to take one hour, now takes two hours some days. This means he has to wait around in a shopping centre with his Dad until it’s time to go to his Mum’s house.
Cases like this are currently rife, and the situation is getting worse as more people move to the province.
Angry Drivers Demand Action
Furious residents like Avinash Castillo are demanding immediate change: “I’ve had enough; it now takes me an extra forty minutes to drive back from work unless I wait around in Marbella. There are people who can’t pick their own children up from school anymore, people who don’t want this.”
Politicians Admit Defeat
Malaga’s Mayor Francisco de la Torre, who was awarded an honorary OBE, admitted there’s no quick solution to the congestion crisis.
“They know there’s a problem, but that seems to be coming from the top are excuses. It seems like there is a feeling of overwhelm and lack of initiative,” according to Mr Avinash.
While the public demands solutions, working groups and long-term projects create more red tape in a country where red tape is the second most popular sport, after football, of course.
Doomed Solutions?
Park-and-Ride Failure
Are the proposed Park-and-Ride schemes doomed to fail?
While Park-and-Ride schemes may alleviate some congestion in city centres, they are non-existent in many towns and do not tackle the issue of commutes between the different towns along the Costa del Sol. The Malaga province is particularly spread out, with many small hubs like Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella, San Pedro de Alcantara and Estepona. Park-and-ride schemes are not designed for this type of commuting, and they are more suited to commuting inside one city.
Scooters and Bikes Won’t Fix This
Are bikes and scooters really the answer when the province is on the verge of total gridlock?
Residents are furious while politicians try to convince them that bikes and low-emission zones are the solutions. While there is merit in these initiatives, they are hardly a solution to relentless traffic in cities, A-roads, and motorways. Let’s be realistic: commuters are not about to ditch their cars or buses and bomb down the A-7 road on a scooter to drop their kids off at school. Did these politicians use scooters and bikes to get to this meeting? Or did they schedule it at a quieter time of day to avoid rush hour?
Gridlock Catastrophe Looms
Unless something is done quickly and things are allowed to snowball, the Costa del Sol risks falling into a full-blown traffic apocalypse. Let’s make no mistake: we are sitting on a ticking time bomb, too distracted by the pretty beaches to realise. The environmental toll, the economic hit, and the stress and mental health impact on residents who are forced to endure daily chaos on the roads are immense.
How long before the Costa del Sol comes to a complete standstill?
What is clear is that there are deep issues that need to be resolved on the A-7 Road on the Costa del Sol.
Proposed solutions are inadequate and almost half-baked.
Local residents are not happy.
