Green lines on the roads: what do they mean?

The DGT has painted green lines on two roads in Palencia, but do you know what they mean? We explain

When we drive along the road, most of the information we receive comes through the road markings, whether on the road surface itself, on signs placed on the verges or overhead.

These tell us what manoeuvres we can make and, in addition, they form a universal language that lets us drive almost anywhere in the world. They help achieve the goal of increasing road safety and, therefore, reducing the number of accidents and deaths on our roads.

Unfortunately, these still exist, so you should not miss our feature on what to do in the event of an accident. Secondary roads are the great black spots of our road network, and they are where the most injury road accidents occur in Spain.

To try to reduce this figure, the DGT keeps working on new initiatives to make these roads safer. To that end, it has applied a new strategy that had already been successfully used in countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands: painting new green lines on the roads to reduce speed.

This is nothing new: the first Spanish roads to adopt this measure are in the province of Palencia (CL-613 and CL-615). These two roads introduced the green lines in 2016 and, after more than three years in operation, the results recorded were very positive.

https://twitter.com/SocialDrive_es/status/1128607969585844224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1128607969585844224&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lavanguardia.com%2Fmotor%2Factualidad%2F20200220%2F473667655029%2Fque-son-las-lineas-verdes-que-la-dgt-ha-pintado-en-algunas-carreteras.html

What do green lines on the roads mean?

As we said earlier, the experiment with green lines on the roads was carried out in Sweden and the Netherlands and showed that they helped calm and slow traffic. These lines are painted parallel to the white edge lines that delimit the hard shoulder, but this time on the inner side of them, that is, inside the lane.

The lines play on drivers’ lack of familiarity, so their colour and placement make the driver think the road is narrowing and, therefore, reduces speed.

These green lines are accompanied by vertical signs that warn the driver that they are on speed-controlled stretches. The aim is for drivers to associate these lines with sections where there may be a speed camera, so that “it is no longer necessary to install speed control systems, and a self-explanatory road is obtained”, the DGT explains.

The results obtained on the two Palencia roads are positive, so it would not be surprising to see these green lines on other roads in Spain. Therefore, if you come across these new markings on the road, do not panic: simply reducing your speed is enough. We will have to see how autonomous vehicles adapt to this novelty.