02 Mar 2020

Mobility and safety.

Barcelona applies new traffic measures at 30 kilometers per hour.

As of this first week of March, Barcelona limits the speed of circulation on the city’s secondary roads to 30km / h. Reducing the maximum speed from 50 km/h to 30 km/h lowers the death rate from 45% to only 5%. This measure affects all secondary roads in the city, regardless of whether they have only one lane for traffic or several. The new signaling, both horizontal and vertical, has already been incorporated, which includes elevated pedestrian crossings, radars and other informational elements. The axis of the Creu Coberta-Sants Street has been the first to apply the measure that has been put in place since this first of March. The objective of this measure is to reduce the accident rate, achieve a friendlier public space and contribute to the reduction of air pollution.

The new decree of the Barcelona City Council limits the speed to 68% of the city’s streets roads. And by the end of this year 2020 it is expected to have adapted 112 kilometers of roads of the secondary network. In addition, a series of measures will be applied to ensure compliance with traffic regulations on these roads.

By next year 2021, streets such as Via Laietana, Travesera de Gracia, El Carmel or the streets of Diputació and Consell de Cent will be incorporated. In total, at the end of 2021 it is expected to reach 75% of street roads with speed 30 in the city of Barcelona.

This municipal mobility plan «Ciutat 30» (City at 30) is accompanied by other measures and actions contemplated in the «Obrim els Carrers» (We open the roads for citizens) plan, and includes a series of measures for pedestrians to be the protagonists of mobility in the city with the objective to transform public space into a friendlier environment. This “Obrim els Carrers” (We open the roads for citizens) project is inspired by the measures that are applied in the Day without cars, which has been held annually throughout Europe in the framework of the European Mobility Week. This plan proposes to recover the streets for the use of pedestrians and is an initiative that wants to encourage the reduction of traffic impact in large cities, especially in the most congested roads.

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Road safety – Seat belt use into de coach

Since May 2006, the new safety law entered into force in its section on the use of seat belts in coaches. Since 2007, all vehicles registered as of the month of October had already left with the obligation of incorporating seat belts in all seats.

This new law indicates that children under three years of age are not obliged to wear a seat belt, while passengers over 3 years of age and a height equal to or greater than 1.35 mtrs. have the obligation to fasten their seat belts or any other approved restraint system installed in the vehicle, and must wear it throughout the entire journey. This regulation exempts urban and suburban buses.

The persons responsible for the non-use of these security systems will be the same passengers of the vehicle that violate the regulations and are of legal age. In accordance with article 72.1 of the Road Safety Law, the passenger is responsible and the sanction will be filed against him and never against the driver. When a passenger is under the age of eighteen, the joint responsibility will fall on their parents, guardians or legal guardians (in this order) and they will have to face the sanction which may result in a financial penalty of 300 euros. Therefore, the law obliges passengers to fasten their seatbelts on coach journeys and failure to do so entails a serious violation that must be paid by the passenger or his guardian if he is under eighteen.