Going nowhere fast

The Interior Ministry’s DGT road-safety department plans to change the traffic regulations to raise (depending on circumstances) the maximum speed on the safer stretches of four-lane divided highways to 130 kilometers per hour. At the same time, it proposes a reduction of the speed limit on some conventional highways, and even lowering it to 20km/h on some city streets. Obviously this proposal breaks with the policy — which has been a fixture since 2004 — of reducing the number and death rates of road accidents by reduction of the speed limit. The Socialist governments of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero substantially reduced the Spanish accident rate by applying a basic statistical principle: each one-percent rise in traffic speed produces a four-percent rise in the death rate. So the solution was to go the other way — that is, to reduce speed.

The unquestionable success of this policy need not obscure its shortcomings. It is not possible to impose reduction after reduction in speed; besides, after a certain level, they yield diminishing returns in terms of accident reduction. These limitations explain why the struggle against accidents and fatalities has to be complemented with other policies, such as the improvement of two-lane highways, the modernization of our automobile stock, or better and more intensive driver-training courses.

But the government does not recognize these options, which no doubt have their political and economic costs. The problem is that the model it seems to be trying to introduce has no well-defined or consistent objective.

The 10km/h hike in the highway speed limit does not resolve the huge disproportion between modern engine power and speed restrictions, nor will it please the more aggressive drivers. It certainly cannot be claimed that the measure will increase the safety of four-lane divided roads, because, apart from the effects of higher speed on accidents, drivers will assume that they can move at a speed somewhat above the limit.

As for the proposed 90km/h limit on some two-lane highways (down from the current default maximum of 100km/h), this calls for a study or a report on objectives and results, which the DGT, as usual in recent years, has yet to publish, if indeed one exists. The conclusion is that here we have a reform that has not received much consideration, and has no clear objectives.