When a year ago the toll barriers were liftedfollowing the Government’s decision not to renew the concessions that had come to an end, it ended with a historical grievance. The impact of the newly released free highway mainly benefited territories such as Catalonia that had been penalized for decades compared to those where free highways were directly implemented. Several problems arose at the same time that the time that has elapsed has only confirmed, without it being possible to claim that it was a surprise. The non-implementation of an alternative financing system to support the maintenance carried out by the concessionaires until then is beginning to be noticed in the state of the roads. And predictable traffic diversion was inevitable, leading to flow and safety issues.
The latter seems to have been the aspect in which the balance is more balanced. Logically, the movement of vehicles to highways has also moved the place where accidents occur. But changing the roads that concentrated the accident rate for the safest highways has lowered the global number of accidents. More questionable are the consequences of drivers’ travel habits on the agile functioning of the road network. The actions planned by the Ministry of Transport, such as the creation of additional lanes and new accesses that make motorways more permeable, are planned for five to eight years, and they can hardly come sooner. But there are other short-term measures, possible in the short term and in the face of which the different administrations are showing a lack of reflexes. From the prohibition of overtaking trucks or the reduction of speed, in certain sections or moments, to a campaign to inform, alert and punish practices that are not only annoying but also dangerous (slow traffic in the left lane, overtaking on the right) …
But If retentions are the annoyance that drivers perceive most urgently, the financing model is a deeper problem. The Government made a commitment to Europe that the Spanish high-capacity road network would be paid for, and to do so in compliance with the deadlines (2024) and criteria (payment proportional to use and pollution generated) established by the European directive. That is, the return of a toll formulano matter how much the pay-per-use concept changes one term for another.
Related news
Both environmental requirements and fairness favor some intelligent toll system over the alternative of financing by Budgets (therefore, non-users) or the vignette (a flat rate that can encourage increased travel) . Although its dissuasive effect on mobility is doubtful (the increase in fuel prices has not done so, so it is reasonable to think that the true dissuasive measure is a good offer of collective transport), it is a future scenario that is hard to see alternative. Even essential that it be general, without creating new territorial grievancesand with probably some kind of social bonuses.
The Government now proposes delaying the solution from 2024 to 2025, so as not to assume the cost of the decision in public opinion in 2023, a doubly electoral year. It has been little responsible not to have already advanced in this 2022, although loaded with so many other priorities and urgencies and presumably still marked by inflationary pressures, and it will be even more so to continue letting time pass. This is one more of the endless reforms and decisions that accumulate in which a transversal pact would be necessary to agree on a stable model, and prevent the fear of those who are in government or the electoral calculation of those who aspire to reach it from leading to inaction.