We Spaniards are increasingly aware of our environmental environment and in cities, especially large ones, more and more are choosing alternative transportation methods to private cars. Official statistics reflect this: the use of urban public transport has skyrocketed 5.9% in July, according to data released Wednesday by the INE.

In those cities that have it, transportation by subway has grown by 5.9%. The largest increase in July, compared to the same month of the previous year, has been registered in the city of Palma , with a 29.7% increase. It is followed by Malaga (15.6%), Barcelona (9.2%) and Madrid (4.5%).

And also the urban bus reflects an increase by users, growing 5.8% in July compared to the same month of 2018. In addition, growing in all the autonomous communities, with the highest increases in the Canary Islands (10.9% ), Extremadura (7.9%) and Madrid (7.3%). Where it grows at a slower pace, but it is also on the rise, it has been in the Basque Country (2.0%), the Valencian Community (2.4%) and Aragon (3.8%).

But is this pull of public transport in cities [the statistics of the INE still does not reflect new realities of urban mobility such as shared vehicles] fruit of the environmental awareness of citizens? If in addition to the urban public transport data we look at the statistics on how we move between cities, it is not so clear.

And, if public transport has grown 5.9%, the use of the plane to move from one city to another in Spain has shot up 7.9% in July. It is true that July is a month with a lot of internal displacement on the occasion of summer vacations, and it would not be very news if this increase were compared to the month of June. But the increase close to 8% has been compared with July last year, which also had the incidence of the start of summer vacations.

In total, more than 4.27 million users used air transport in July, of which 2.22 million users between the Peninsula and the rest of the territory (+ 7.8%) and 1.51 million users of domestic flights (+ 10%) and 532,000 users of inter-island flights (+ 2.4%).

The AVE has also experienced a sharp increase in demand in July, although not as much as the plane. Specifically 3.26 million travelers opted for the long-distance train, 2.8% more, and within this segment, travelers who used the AVE exceeded two million users, 4.9% more than in the same month of 2018.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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