The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) are proposing new rules to protect cyclists on Spain’s roads, including a suggestion that drivers reduce their speed to 20 km/h below the speed limit when passing cyclists, according to the General Director of Trafico, Pere Navarro, during his speech at the conference 'From Road Safety to Safe, Sustainable and Connected Mobility' yesterday.
Navarro explained that his department is working on new laws to protect users who make up the so-called vulnerable group on roads (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists), saying that 2019 was "the first year in the history of Spain, in which the number of users in these vulnerable groups that died in traffic accidents outnumbered those who travelled in cars.”
It was due to this statistic that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, asked the DGT to come up with some new regulations for drivers that would protect cyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists.
According to the director of the DGT, until now drivers had to maintain a minimum lateral distance of 1.5 metres with the cyclist when overtaking them. “We like the message: You see the bikes. First, brake. Then look to check the 1.5 metres, then go ahead. We are going to say now that the speed has to be 20km/h below the speed limit of the road on which you are going to overtake them”, he said.
Likewise, he explained that, there will also be new regulations for cyclists and motorcyclists as well, for example, cyclists will have to wear helmets and motorcyclists must wear gloves, and both may use the hard shoulder in times of congestion. In addition, the implementation of airbag on motorcycles will be promoted.
Finally, he confirmed that all the regulations are made "in the automobile era" and that pedestrians are seen "as an obstacle" for car drivers, so the wording of the Spanish highway code will be redone to give it a "friendlier" feeling for people on foot.
