Barcelona rolls out new average-speed cameras

Barcelona City Council has unveiled a new road safety plan that introduces new measures, including the installation of new average-speed cameras across the city

The new Barcelona road safety plan 2019-2022 was presented last Monday by Albert Batlle, Deputy Mayor for Security. This new project is ambitious, as its goal is to reduce road traffic deaths by 20% and serious injuries by 16%.

Although this goal has always been necessary, pursuing it now is more important than ever, since according to Juan José Vilanova, Chief Superintendent of the Urban Guard and Head of the Traffic Division, the number of victims is still too high. Specifically, in 2019 a total of 19 people have already died on the roads: eleven motorcyclists, six pedestrians, one cyclist and one car driver.

New average-speed cameras in Barcelona to tackle speeding

To address these troubling figures, Adriá Gomila, Barcelona’s Director of Mobility, has made reducing speeding a priority. To do so, the installation of “educational mobile speed cameras“, like the one already installed in Sant Antoni, will be necessary.

Therefore, the installation of new average-speed cameras in Barcelona has been confirmed for 2020. Specifically, they will be placed in the Rovira Tunnel, the Badal Tunnel and on the Litoral ring road at the height of Moll de la Fusta, three black spots where several accidents have already been concentrated.

The Barcelona City Council’s goal is for the number of road deaths in 2022 to be below 18 and for serious injuries not to exceed 167. Therefore, this new plan, with 95 measures and 124 actions, will focus on education and the correction of driver behaviour.

Vilanova has stressed that this new plan has been created taking into account changes in mobility and that its aim is to improve coexistence and adapt the use of public space. In addition, emphasis has been placed on the need to protect the most vulnerable groups, namely pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

For this reason, work will be done on preventing crashes that cause the most harm to victims. “We want to change the paradigm and stop talking about traffic accidents and start talking about road casualties. We must tackle what is already a pandemic in advanced societies,” Batlle concluded.

New mobility poses a challenge for road safety

On the other hand, Rosa Alarcón, Councillor for Mobility, stated that they pursue three objectives: sustainability, coexistence and safety. “We have a vision zero objective, that is, zero road deaths.” She also showed awareness of the road safety challenges posed by the emergence of new personal mobility vehicles such as electric scooters. We take this opportunity to recommend our tips for buying an electric scooter.

Also, the issue of sharing was addressed, and Alarcón proposed that users of these companies who break traffic rules be removed from the apps. This measure is seen as necessary, as more and more drivers are detected using services such as Wible or Respiro under the influence of alcohol and drugs.