If the post-pandemic summers have made one thing clear, it’s that combining mass tourism with local populations isn’t easy, as travellers recover and Spain nurtures its dream of becoming the most visited country on the planet. In the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and Catalonia, residents have already taken to the streets to demand that the sector’s growth doesn’t overtake them. In O Morrazo, Pontevedra province, residents fed up with people crowding the sidewalks and streets for their beaches have also decided to take action, albeit in a slightly more peculiar way. Their strategy is to cross pedestrian crossings.

Cross and cross and cross pedestrian crossings.

Protests and pedestriansThere is nothing written about the protests. For example, in July, Barcelona residents, upset by tourist overcrowding, resorted to water guns to douse visitors drinking beer on terraces. In O Hío, Cangas, a town in the Rías Baixas famous for its beaches, they also found their own way of showing their displeasure at the saturation.

Although somewhat picturesque, it was also arguably effective: it gave them visibility beyond Cangas, Pontevedra and even Galicia, and clarified their position. The reason? His strategy consisted of repeatedly crossing the town’s pedestrian crossings for minutes and more.

But this… Why? It’s very simple. According to the highway code. Traffic laws clearly state that vehicles must wait when pedestrians cross a pedestrian crossing that is not regulated by traffic lights. And if this flow of pedestrians is continuous and uninterrupted for half an hour, drivers have no choice but to brake and be patient until a large caravan forms behind them, which is exactly what they intended in O Hío.

What, where and when is important. If the Cangas protest worked, it was because the neighbors knew how to calculate the place, time, and day of mobilization. They did it a week ago, shortly before midmorning on a sunny summer day, and they did it again yesterday, on a hot, sunny August Sunday. Or, more like it, a day at the beach.

In both cases, the “modus operandi” of the neighbourhoods was quite similar: residents of the neighbourhood start to make visitors’ vehicles, who want to reach some towns, pass through pedestrian crossings at strategic points within the municipality for about half an hour. It will pass the most popular beaches of O Morrazo.

37 minutes… and long caravansFor example, a week ago, residents occupied a pedestrian crossing right next to a bar in the area, close to the entrances to the particularly dense sandy areas, for 37 minutes. Yesterday, they repeated the same strategy: Dozens of neighbors devoted themselves to destroying three pedestrian crossings on the EP-1005 provincial highway for about 20 minutes.

Once again, the when was as important as the where: they focused on the two intersections at Igrexario and the third intersection in the direction of Pintés, in front of a local store. Voice of Galicia He assures that the concentrations will be closed within 20 minutes to prevent the Civil Guard from detecting neighbors participating in the protest.

Simple… and effective. It may seem strange to cross a pedestrian crossing for almost half an hour without interruption, but in Hío they showed that it suited their purpose perfectly. Although organisers admitted yesterday that the appeal did not have the expected results, it did end up being a great loudspeaker for neighbours to voice their complaints.

When they met on a sunny Sunday, they caused a traffic jam involving dozens of cars in less than half an hour. The staging was so outlandish that it attracted the attention not only of the local press but also of the country’s media. His criticism, for example, resonated. Pioneer.

Why are they doing this? Because the neighbors claim they are “desperate” because of the car crashes and crowding they have been experiencing for the past summer. They live in a beach area that is also envied by tourists and families from other parts of Galicia and even parts of Rías Baixas. What should have been an advantage at first ends up being a heavy burden for them.

“Everyone has the right to go to the beach, but neighbors also have the right to live,” he said a week ago. Voice of Galicia Mercedes Villar, president of the Pinténs neighborhood association, says they are trying to show visitors what it means to live amidst vehicular chaos by creating traffic jams.

“It affects everyone’s life.”“Traffic problems are already common, but this year they have tripled at least. It’s an avalanche that not only pollutes the environment but also affects everyone’s life because they park wherever they want,” Villar decried. They emphasize that the focus is on discourteous visitors who park their cars incorrectly, blocking sidewalks and entrances to houses. “We want people to be understanding and leave if they see there is no place to park.”

“This is not tourism phobia.” This statement comes from Villar, who insists that the residents are not against tourism, but against the unregulated, uncontrolled use of the beaches to the detriment of those who have homes in the area. “This is not a phobia of tourism, it is the right of neighbors to live in peace, to protect the natural environment of O Hío, our safety and our physical integrity.”

To the influx of visitors from other parts of Spain, but also from the rest of Galicia, another difficulty has been added this summer: the differences between the Local Police and the Municipal Council, which affect the control of vehicles at the entrances to the beaches. “They have led us to this situation of complete abandonment, which has led to great traffic jams, a large number of inappropriate parking spaces and insecurity in our villages, which many of those who usually come to enjoy our beaches take advantage of”, he said. Vigo Lighthouse.

Images | Sergei Gussev (Flickr) and Simone Ramella (Flickr)

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