Many workers are forced to take early retirement

With the issue of the crisis Spain is suffering a lot in the economy and much of these aspects of the crisis is reflected in early retirement.

As we know, the retirement age is in 65 years but we can retired earlier. Many of workers between 61 and 63 years old are unemployed, so they are retiring. To think, just two months ago that the new pension act can have access to a voluntary retirement, early or forced to retire two years would enable you ahead of schedule. The self-employed are the most affected ones and that blocking the new law requires them to continue trading until 65 years old.

The central government suspended until March these sections under the act. Them, we’ll know what it will happens with all the workers and also, with the social security because they are in the limit as they hardly counted two taxpayers for every pensioner.

Xabier Alberdi

Traffic flow falls in spanish turnpike highways

Spanish highways are losing vehicle traffic since the crisis began. A recent study says that in the first 10 months of 2012 the traffic decreased in 17.193 vehicles, but the worst new is that it´s a progressive fall. This index was not known since 15 years ago.

There are many reasons for this decrease, as unemployment index, taxes increase, additional cost of expropriations and presence of secondary free roads.

In this situation 6 turnpikes are currently in insolvency proceedings and maybe some more will be in the near future.

In 2007 the vehicle fleet began to decrease after many years of increasing, up to now a 27% of the traffic flow exactly. This means the situation in the Spanish turnpikes at the moment is like in 1998.

What situation awaits us in the future? We have to start thinking about sharing cars, using the public transport or getting a bicycle. 

Xabier Torrado

Parking in Donostia

After measuring the costs of diesel when moving inside the city, now its the time to talk about the cost of parking your car in a parking lot or in an OTA zone.

There are 4 zones, the special zone, red, blue and green.

• The special one is the most expensive, because it’s located in the middle of the city( light brown color)
• The red zone is a bit cheaper than the special zone
• The green zone is the cheapest, placed in the universities and Zurriola

this is the map of the zones

Ayuntamiento de Donostia - San Sebastián

Lets compare the costs between the 4 zones:

1 hour

Special 1.94€

Red 1.48€

Blue 1.12€

Green 0.87€

If you want to park your car safely in a underground parking, we can difference 3 different prices depending on the zone of the underground:

(click on the links to see the map and prices)

1st group Okendo, Boulevard, Cervantes, Kursaal, San Martín

2nd group Buen Pastor, Easo, Txofre, P. Cataluña, Atotxa

3rd group Pío XII, Arco, Illumbe, Antiguo Berri, Zuatzu

Ayuntamiento de Donostia - San Sebastián

Now lets calculate the price of 1 hour like before:

1 hour

1st group 2.29€

2nd group 1.94€

3rd group 1.75€

To continue the example from the Diesel costs, lets add the cost of parking to that example:

From 14 to 24€ per month (diesel)

Parking in a OTA zone (green zone) for 6 hours: 3.49€ a day, 69.8€ for 20 days, for example, if you have to park there to work.

Now things don’t look that cheap with an estimated total of 87€ per 20 days.

Next time we’ll talk about the cost of maintenance and taxes, and then compare them to the cost of using the bus and bike.

Bastian Parra