ARCHIVED - Spain wants to reduce motorway speed limits from 120 to 110kph
The measure is aimed at reducing fuel usage in the face of an energy crisis in Spain
With the weather finally turning more spring-like across Spain after weeks of torrential rain, most are looking forward to the summer season with anticipation; however, the Spanish government has already set its sights on the upcoming winter, with yet another energy crisis looming.
With the war in Ukraine raging on, there is a real threat that Vladimir Putin will further restrict energy supplies to Europe or that the EU will push its sanctions even further with a complete ban on gas from Russia. In anticipation of this possible scenario, the Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, is drafting a number of recommendations that consumers could implement this winter to cut costs, reduce energy usage and as a result, our dependency on Russian products.
One of the measures being considered is reducing the speed limit on motorways across Spain from 120 km/hour to 110, a move that would drastically lower the amount of petrol and diesel being consumed, according to the government.
Minister Ribera isn’t the first to suggest reducing speed limits, however, and when it was trialled in Spain back in 2011 at the height of the crisis with Libya it’s fair to say it was a bit of a disaster. Motorway speeds were reduced to 110 kilometres between March 7 and June 30 of that year, during which period the then government altered more than 6,100 traffic signs with stickers of the new limits at a cost of 250,000 euros.
The plan was an ambitious one: the government estimated that petrol consumption could be reduced by 15% and diesel by 11%, saving 1.4 billion euros a year by lowering the speed limit on the 8,800 kilometres of Spanish motorway. The measure was met with immediate criticism, with many arguing that the cost of changing all of the speed signs in the country alone would cancel out the savings.
Indeed, just three months after the measure was adopted, the government had to fork out another 230,000 euros to change back the signs they had amended to 120 km/hr.
Today though, nothing is yet set in stone. Ms Ribera is adamant that the government’s initial intention is to submit a number of suggestions that will help citizens reduce their energy usage.
“We are not working on hard legislation,” she reassured.
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