FERIA 2012 - Parking and traffic changes

JIMENA This year's feria takes place this weekend, from Friday evening (plus one event in the morning, see programme in another article) to Sunday night. The principal events such as the coronation of the Queen, take place in the main square. Therefore parking at the square is not allowed until the end of the feria. 'Bank street' (Calle Sevilla at the Paseo end) will be closed throughout because the craft market is going there. There will be barriers and indications to divert traffic through other streets. Parking, on the whole, will be difficult at the bottom of the village because the rides are located at the Fiday market square and the flat land behind the school (known as Llano de Jacobo).

Reader's comment: My street is only one way now!

Vaca this morning,
with brand new sign

(Via e-mail) "After a couple of hours out of the village, I came home to find that, all of a sudden, Calle La Vaca has been made ONE WAY!  No-one bothered to tell us residents, it just happened.  To add to the joy, we cannot now enter the street via the entrance by the water office, but either have to turn off at Ruiz Galan and come up from the river, or tackle the horrendous corner just down from the Anon.  What the idiot planner was thinking of, I don't know, because most of the houses and cars are at the end of the street near the water office!! Brains of a pea springs to mind!" (Prosp comment: Can't see what's so horrendous about that corner...)

Clampdown on foreign registered vehicles

Gibraltar-registered vehicles are not exempt
SPAIN Drivers will have noticed that the Guardia Civil Traffic Unit are stopping them more frequently. They should know that the local Guardia Civil are well aware of all the foreign registered vehicles in their area; they know how long a person has been living in the area, and whether or not they have foreign-plated car at the door. Below, you will find a summary of what the law says -and a few suggestions- about a foreign registered car, most of which the GC have until now not been bothered with much. Until now. We keep hearing about cars being towed away or confiscated at the roadside because they are now clamping down on these illegal vehicles. The law is not specific about Gibraltar-plated cars, but it must be assumed that their owners living on this side of the border  are covered by the same law.>>>

Are the roads the cause of accidents in the rain?

(Photo: TJD/Fede)

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR Every year, the first Autumn rains are the reason behind a series of accidents on the A-405 (and just about any other road). This year is no exception. There were at least two yesterday, one of which had a 56 year old woman teken to hospital, fortunately not very seriously injured. Her car turned over and she was trapped, having to be cut out of it. But only an hour later, another car turned over a few kilometers along the same road. Since it began raining on Friday we have heard of at least three more accidents; there were probably several more. In the past we have said that the oil and grease accumulated in the pores of the road surface rise to the top, pushed up by water - and no doubt this is part of the reason. The other is speed. Changes in weather in this part of the world happen almost instantaneously but it appears drivers don't adapt fast enough. And then there are those who got their licence in the summer, buy a powerful car but have no experience - though we hear of one expat with plenty of it, but wrote off his car over the weekend...

No consideration, no sense

(File photo)

This is the daily scene at school rush hour, morning and afternoon. Day after day we see cars parked on the pavement, over a zebra crossing, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for longer (as long as it takes to have a coffee and a chat at the bar across the street). No consideration for mothers with prams who have to go into the street at the bottom of a hill, no consideration for anyone but themselves. And the Local Police ignore it from a distance of maybe twenty meters.

CAUTION: Slippery when wet

(Photo: Philip Heinzl) Yesterday

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR Unlike the Bon Jovi album of the same name, this is a serious warning. The experienced driver will tell you that local roads are at their most dangerous with the first of the season's rain. The oil that has accumulated at the bottom of the pores on the road during the dry summer rises to the top and is displaced by water. Basic Physics says that oil and water do not mix - nor do speed and rain. The inexperienced -or totally stupid- driver is the one that flashes past you on a dangerous bend in the road, and is probably the one whose car just smashed into the railings a little further on. (We do not want to have to report your accident, Dear Reader, so please be careful. Ed.)

Traffic changes during the feria

Click to enlarge

Follow the arrows; the changes are mostly around the primary school. Calle Romo from the bottom (school) to the bank corner will flow up the hill instead of down, and the road from Calle Larga (back of main square parking lot) to the school will go downhill. If preparations this morning are anything to go by, it will be clearly signposted. However, the objective is to keep traffic away from the main square, so if you have to do any banking, for instance, best leave the car a good distance away. And, remember, Monday, August 15, is a national Bank Holiday.

Car takes out bus shelter

(Photo: JimenaPulse)

At about 9pm this evening, a car hit the bus shelter behind N.S. de Los Angeles primary school with a tremendous crash, totally destroying it. The driver left the scene, but a short while later he approached the Local Police to report the accident. He returned to the place in time to see the bomberos clean up, while the police redirected traffic. Fortunately, there are no injuries to report.

Flashy flash signs went up today

The Council has begun installing flashing warning signs to advise drivers of a (very) immediate zebra crossing. These are to be installed in Jimena, Los Ángeles and San Pablo under the financial auspices of the Plan E 2010  employment scheme, with a budget of €27,800. The 6 pairs of signs installed thus far, which use solar energy and therefore have no energy cost, are due to be distribiuted as follows: 3 on the A-405 in Los Ángeles and another three on Avenida de los Deportes in Jimena. (Note: We couldn't help the headline, which was unwittingly given to us by a friend who remarked on seeing one of them, "How flashy!" Sorry.)

Council studies trafficx flow changes in El Gurugú

(Press release) The municipal delegate for Los Ángeles, Juana Jiménez, and the Chief of Police, Francisco Espejo, toured the El Gurugú area yesterday, to work out the possibilities of alternative traffic flow for the streets there. Shops and commerce have increased considerably and there is a petition from the neighbourhood association for order to be put into the area's traffic and parking facilities. A decision, and an announcement is expected in the next few days. (Watch this space!)

How to find your way around Jimena ...

Jimena's Press Office has sent out a series of maps and instructions about how to find your way around the Old Quarter of the village over this puente (bridge, or long weekend) when you might want to put some flowers on someone's grave at the cemetery near the castle. The map comes from a GPS (SatNav) setting that you can find here (in Spanish, but with map): How to access the castle and How to find your way out from the castle. We, of course, are still trying to find our way out of Huelva, having accessed Jimena castle last weekend ...

How to get lost in Jimena!

Further to a recent JP item on the subject (that included what we think is an approximately accurate map), our good friends at TioJimeno have saved us the trouble of walking up to photograph this 'road map' - we wouldn't dare take the car! The map is headed ATENCION: INCIDENCIAS POR OBRAS, which must be bureaucratese for WATCH IT! But we'll translate TioJimeno's article (loosely ,but agreeing with everything it says, and more): "If someone from outsde Jimena tries to obtain information from this, they'll have a job. To start with it says Calle Autoridad Portuaria is closed (they'd have to look up Google Maps to find this street as it isn't on any SatNav system - note: nor, for that matter, on JP's Google Maps either), referring to what we on JP know as 'the ski slope'.>

New traffic scheme operative as from TODAY

As we announced here, and finally produced a map here (image, click to enlarge as much as you like), plus the fact that we encountered and spoke to a Local Police person standing guard at the bottom of the ski slope (sorry, Calle Autoridad Portuaria), the new traffic scheme is operative as from today. Actually, the policeman's words were, "as soon as they've finished their coffee". There is not a single sign of any kind, not paper, tin or anything, on any of the newly diverted streets or roads to alert those who don't look at websites. Again, we found foreign tourists looking puzzled and frustrated. Our dreadful German, peppered by much gesturing and English, did manage to direct one very angst-ridden family out of the village, which necessitated accompanying them to Corral de Concejo and pointing downhill. We gathered that they just gave up on seeing the castle... they won't be back, either.

Tarara-tarara-tarara-ra - We proudly present...

... a nightmare of arrows that may or may not get you around, in and out of Jimena over the next month or so. We promised a map that matched the convoluted instructions that came out of the Town Hall, and here it is. (Just click on it to enlarge - but you know that by now, don't you?) However, JimenaPulse, it's owner, manager, writer and chief bottle washer will accept absolutely no responsibility for its accuracy and will most certainly slap you in the face if you blame him for any accidents that might occur as the result of the directions published here. (Incidentally, this map took over half  a day to interpret and concoct; how much is your time worth? Have you made a donation to JimenaPulse lately?)

New traffic scheme for roadworks entering Phase 3

(Press release) In a convoluted press release, the Local Police warn drivers that a new traffic flow system will enter into operation "in the next few days." As you are probably aware, the road is up right in front of the Town Hall, but work continues up Calle Sevilla to replace decrepit sewer and water pipes. We will attempt to create a map for a better understanding of the following information:

Work on Calle Sevilla restarts today

The replacement of water and sewer pipes on Calle Sevilla got under way again today after a summer break. Traffic is being diverted as it was before: To go to the upper part of the village, turn right at the Cajasol corner, and left up Romo. To come to 'downtown' Jimena, you'll have to leave via the campsite road or Corral de Concejo and come all the way round. The Council asks that those living on Sevilla, please take their rubbis to the nearest container as the lorry will not be able to pick up at the door.

Jimena traffic remains as normal until September 7

(Press release) Sevilla (up) and Romo (down) streets will remain as normal until Tuesday, September 7, when work on sewers and drains will be renewed. Work on the roads has stopped to give the ARCGISA workers a holiday. After that date, Sevilla will be closed to vehicles and traffic on Romo will once again head downhill. Watch this space for changes.

Guardia Civil union says they are 'pressured' to increase traffic fines

The Unión de Oficiales de la Guardia Civil Profesional, one of several unions covering the force, says that the Ministry of the Interior, under which they operate, "continues to exert pressure to increase the number of denuncias (i.e. fines)" by creating "a Machiavellic points system that evaluates an officer and influences his or her pay check." The statement comes at a time when thereis an alleged 'down pen strike' by traffic police that has resulted in a decrease in the number of fines emmitted. The union goes on to say that the system could have serious consequences, as the points system fosters an 'anything goes' attitude "in order to protect our measly wages." It adds that (Get the whole story on CampoPulse)

Calle Sevilla now closed (almost) all the way up

We've been warning about the imminence of Phase 2 of the roadworks in Jimena. Today, they have finally closed off the stretch from the Parafarmacia up to the 'ski slope' just above the Town Hall. Calle Romo is  now therefore only downhill from the alleyway opposite Bar Marilyn, and uphill all the way to Paseo Cristina, where traffic flow becomes normal (so to speak). Click on the map to enlarge. (PLEASE CONSIDER: WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU MADE A DONATION TO THIS WONDERFULLY USEFUL SITE?)

Jimena-Ubrique and Barranca Bermeja roads repaired and open

The A-8201 road linking Jimena with Puerto Gáliz, Ubrique and Cortes was opened to traffic this morning, pending markings and other details (photo). It had been closed to traffic since the the December storms caused a landslide (see here). Also finished and open is the road on the left side of the Guadiaro river known as Barranca Bermeja, which is used principally by agricultural traffic, joining San Pablo de Buceite and San Martín del Tesorillo (though we believe the Tesorillo end is still unpassable - can anyone confirm?)