a secure and prosperous future

Our Policy

Our sound policies have brought both economic stability and an improved quality of life to all Gibraltarians.

Gibraltar is safer, politically, internationally, socially and economically than ever before. The GSD will continue to meet the challenges that have afforded us the success that we enjoy today.

Parking and Traffic

No Government ever before has taken on the challenge of addressing Gibraltar’s historical traffic and parking problems. The GSD Government has developed, and is currently in the process of implementing Gibraltar’s first ever Integrated Traffic, Parking & Transport Plan to do just that.

The Plan brings together the Government’s policy proposals in a variety of areas which impact, directly or indirectly, on traffic fluidity and parking availability. These include the following areas:

Car Parking facilities and schemes

  1. - Residential areas, visitors & town centre

  2. - A pilot scheme has already been implemented in the North District and will shortly be deployed elsewhere around Gibraltar. This is designed to ensure that residents of an area have free street parking reserved for their use, while making provision for visitors to the area.

  3. - Building more car parks

  4. - Many hundreds of new car parking spaces have already been built or provided at Commonwealth Parade, Land Port Ditch, Willis Road Car Park, Sandpits Car Park, New Harbours Car Parks, Devil’s Tower Road Car Park and at new home ownership schemes car parks, and even at the Mid Harbour rental Estate which is the first ever Government housing estate with its own “underground” car park creating hundreds of additional parking spaces which free up street parking spaces for everyone else.

  5. - The provision of still more parking continues, with Ragged Staff Car Park (on site of ex Building & Works depot) now under construction, and multi storey car parks about to start at South Pavilion, Engineer Lane and Arengos.

  6. - Removal of derelicts

  7. - Legislation and resources have already been put in place to ensure the freeing up of parking spaces by the wholesale removal of derelict vehicles and thereafter their systematic timely removal in the future

  8. - More motor cycle parking

  9. - As part of this Scheme, dedicated motor cycle parking areas will be provided at regular intervals throughout Gibraltar

  10. - Separating cars and motor cycles

  11. - Legislation to this effect has already been introduced. This will ensure that motorcycles are safe from being knocked over by cars, and that motorcycles will not block car parking spaces

Policing and Enforcement of Parking schemes

We have introduced parking schemes to ensure that residents have parking reserved for them in the area in which they live and shoppers have parking available to them when they visit the town and other commercial areas. But only by more effective enforcement of rules will traffic flow more fluidly and parking schemes work as intended. To ensure this we have introduced the following:

  1. - Appointment of ‘Highways Enforcement Officers’, to provide a dedicated and efficient enforcement service;

  2. - ‘On the spot fines’ for non locally registered vehicles, to ensure that foreign cars do not do as they please and get away with it while we local have to comply;

  3. - Higher fines, to ensure that they act as an effective deterrent;

  4. - ‘Tow away’ of vehicles that obstruct and clamping of persistent offenders to ensure compliance and that Residents only parking is respected and inconsiderate parking and stopping does not result in traffic delays for everyone else;

  5. - Use of CCTV cameras, to enforce  general crime, vandalism, anti social behaviour, and parking

  6. - Limited use of Speed cameras

New Roads, better roads and better traffic flow

With Gibraltar’s ever increasing number of cars, both locally owned and visitors, it has been necessary to create new roads and routes to spread them out and accommodate traffic fluidity for the higher numbers of cars. Our policy has therefore included the building of new roads, the widening of existing roads, the removal of bus stops from traffic lanes (to improve traffic flow) and the introduction of “zero tolerance” no stopping blue zones where traffic flow would be seriously affected.

  1. - Trafalgar interchange (completed) – apart from embellishing our city, this has very successfully resolved one of Gibraltar’s historical traffic “choke points”.

  2. - Europort link road (completed), will provide relief to traffic delays exiting the Westside area.

  3. - Devil’s Tower Road Dual Carriageway (completed), new road through Aerial Farm and Tunnel under runway (under construction) – will provide major new road network providing two lane, fluid traffic flow all the way from Smith Dorrien Avenue to frontier and airport. These major schemes will mean that local traffic circulation will not in future be a victim of frontier queues or airplanes landing or taking off!

  4. - Dudley Ward Tunnel safe approach (completed) – provides impressive and safe two way traffic flow around the Rock.

  5. - New Upper Town link road (completed) – decongests traffic flow in the Upper Town area.

  6. - Chatham Counterguard (completed) – new through road to decongest “Fuente del Capullo” roundabout and Queensway.

  7. - New beach road at Eastern Beach (nearing completion) – to beautify the beach area, improve amenities and ensure that the beach road is separate from the road to the frontier.


These new roads are in addition to the widening of “Lovers Lane”, Europa Road (in places), Sir Herbert Miles Road and the removal of bus stops from traffic lanes (where possible) to improve traffic flow and safety.
In short, more new roads and road improvements have been carried out to improve traffic flows and safety in 15 years of GSD Government than in any other 50 year period in our history!

Public Transport and other alternatives

The Policy seeks to build further on the GSD’s provision of alternatives to the use of the motor car, namely the establishment of a new, modern and reliable bus service, and the introduction of widespread pedestrian zones to facilitate and encourage the pedestrian experience.

Further improvements in bus service have been introduced recently, namely the changes to bus routes to make them more convenient and interconnected and also free bus travel for everyone on most routes (all except frontier route).