Motorway speed limit back up to 120 km/h

Motorway speed limit back up to 120 km/h

By: ThinkSpain , Friday, July 1, 2011

The speed limit on Spain’s motorways and dual carriageways has gone back up to 120 kilometres per hour today, after being dropped to 110 km/h for four months to save energy.

The return to the original 120 km/h speed limit coincides with the first annual “summer exodus” which will continue until Sunday 3rd July when it is expected that 4.1 million car journeys will be made on the Spanish roads.

In accordance with the government’s decision last Friday, the speed limit will go back up because of the recent drops in the price of oil and the  prediction that oil prices will continue to fall.

The vice-president of the Government, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, defended the “strictly economic” reason for the measure, said that with petrol prices going down, the lower speed limit “no longer makes sense”.

When the decision was taken to lower the speed limit, a barrel of Brent was costing 115 dollars compared with 108 dollars today. Petrol prices in Spain have fallen 1.36% (unleaded petrol) and 2.28% (diesel) in the past week.

The lowering of the speed limit to 110 km/h, which led to a heated debate in parliament, brought about a saving of some 450 million euros, according to the Government’s figures, and has, they say, helped educate people about lower speeds and lower petrol bills.

In order to change the speed limit signs, new stickers have been placed over the ones that were used to cover the 6,150 original signs four months ago, incurring a similar cost to that outlaid in March – 230,000 euros.

The speed limit change was the most controversial part of the Government’s energy-saving plan in the face of rising oil prices thanks to the conflicts raging in numerous African countries.

via Motorway speed limit back up to 120 km/h.

Highway authority considers 30km/h speed limit in cities

The DGT, Spain’s highway authority, is investigating the possibility of imposing a 30km/h speed limit on all single-lane, two-way streets in urban areas, regardless of whether there is a speed-limit sign or not. “The intention is to pass a royal decree this year,” DGT sources said during the Cities Conference for Road Safety in Córdoba.

The aim of the measure, proposed by the Spanish Municipalities and Provinces Federation, is to reduce accidents by 50 percent as well as reduce pollution, explained Anna Ferrer, director of the Road Safety Monitoring Agency.

“At 70km/h nobody is saved; at 50, 50 percent are saved and at 30, 95 percent are saved,” said DGT director Pere Navarro of pedestrian fatalities, adding that in 2009, 269 people were killed in road accidents in Spain- 46 percent of them in cities.

The Environment Ministry in January requested shock measures to combat pollution in big cities, directed at reducing the contamination caused by urban traffic. Regional and local governments have been facing a growing backlash against their inaction over pollution levels in Spain’s major cities, which in the case of Madrid have regularly exceeded EU legal limits over the past decade.

In Barcelona, recent high pollution levels forced Artur Mas’ new Catalan regional government to postpone its promised revocation of an 80km/h limit on city approach roads.

via Highway authority considers 30km/h speed limit in cities · ELPAÍS.com in English.