The main north-south motorway running across Catalonia, the AP-7 (European E-15), has become a daily nightmare for millions of commuters and travellers. Since tolls were removed on September 1st last year, allowing drivers to drive the 350km from France in the north to the Valencian Country in the south without paying a cent in charges, there have been a total of 636 traffic jams and similar incidents on this major Catalan route. Traffic levels have grown by 40 to 50%. In addition, since the elimination of tolls, accidents on the highway have increased. Between January 13th and the month of May, there were more than three times as many deaths in accidents on the route as in the same period in 2019, the year before the pandemic broke out. That is, a total of 13 people died, a figure which constitutes about 20 percent of mortality on Catalan roads in 2022.
The director of the Catalan Traffic Service (SCT), Ramon Lamiel, has spoken about this controversy and acknowledged that the current mobility model "does not provide a solution" for journeys "of dispersion from the metropolitan area to holiday areas" and stated that the AP-7 has "hit its ceiling" on weekends, after several tailback episodes were recorded during the Segona Pasqua holiday weekend at the start of June. Lamiel notes that the body responsible for the infrastructure is the Spanish state, as its owner, and that the SCT takes measures in traffic management to reduce accidents and holdups. He admits that there is a "general mobility problem" in Catalonia on weekends and also on weekdays, when there are 126 kilometres of tailbacks on average, he said. The director of the SCT has called for the promotion of "mobility alternatives" through public transport and he put an emphasis on buses.
The most problematic stretches
The sections of motorway that suffer the worst daily delays are the southern section of the AP-7 between Vilafranca and El Papiol and the northern section of the same motorway between Sant Celoni and La Roca del Vallès. Another of the hotspots for traffic is the C-32 coastal motorway as it passes through the Maresme, the C-33 at the northern entrance to Barcelona city, and the N-II in its section currently affected by road works from Vidreres to Tordera. And, the point that presents the most problems in the metropolitan area is without a doubt, the Nus de la Trinitat - Barcelona's "spaghetti junction" - traversed by most traffic entering or leaving the city through the northeast corridor and which has, like the AP-7, reached "its limit", according to the traffic authorities.
Since the tolls were withdrawn, the Catalan Traffic Service has been studying decongestion solutions for these problem areas, one of which has been to open an additional lane on the AP-7 (South of Barcelona) between Vilafranca and El Papiol or on the C-32 in the Maresme, so far only used on one occasion. According to Lamiel, this measure "helps a lot" on the busy "Operation Return" days when people come home from holidays. In the case of the AP-7 North, the measure of adding an additional lane has been impossible since the toll booths were removed because they have not found the point to safely reintegrate the extra lane into the main flow. According to traffic data, 55% of accidents on the AP-7 are of one type: nose to tail. The good thing is that these are almost always resolved without injuries, but they nevertheless generate delays that can last for hours, due to the time it takes to remove vehicles that are blocking the road.
The safety and mobility coordinator for STC, Oscar Llatge, explained that one of the measures envisaged is to speed up the arrival and work of tow vehicles when an accident occurs. Trànsit wants to set up a tow system to remove damaged vehicles when the services called for insurance purposes are delayed. Llatge recalled that this is not an "easy task". "It's not a question of being better or worse at the job, but rather that planning does not cover the management measures required," he added: "it's an infrastructure problem." For its part, the Spanish transport ministry has its own network of tow vehicles, but the Catalan traffic authorities, which have not yet finalized their plan, seek to expand their fleet with their own vehicles on the AP-7 and the AP-2 - the main motorway from Barcelona inland to Lleida and beyond.
Traffic measures for summer '22
The SCT will add additional lanes and restrict the passage of trucks at certain times on the AP-7 for the upcoming Sant Joan weekend (June 23rd-26th). This was explained by Llatge, who also pointed out that these same measures will be applied over the weekends in July. "These are agreed and planned restrictions to deal with the large movement of vehicles," he insisted. As for the question of trucks overtaking other trucks, he recalled that in some cases - for example, when there is an additional lane - this is already done, and that these are limitations that are subject to "variation" and are studied "every week".
On the other side of the coin is the transport operators sector. Eduard Ayach, of the Catalan road transport businesses association (CETCAT), recalled that his sector demands the ability to work "in acceptable conditions". He explained that the drivers have "very strict" regulations that do not allow them to "choose when they can or cannot move". Therefore, he asserted that new restrictions could directly affect productivity, in a scenario that has "a background problem which involves the structural deficit." Ayach said that they are holding ongoing meetings with Catalan traffic and territorial officials, but that it is up to them to "act". "We have already said everything we had to say," he said.
Slow down the AP-7
Another of the measures proposed by the STC is to reduce the speed limit on the AP-7 motorway in its transit through the two Vallès counties, just inland of Barcelona city, from the current 120 km/h to 100 km/h. This is a proposal they are working on to reduce accidents and delays and could be applied to other sections of the motorway. As explained by the TSC safety and mobility coordinator, "they are in alignment" on their ideas with the Spanish works and development ministry to take the measure forward. "The aim would be to apply a fixed regulation on certain sections, focusing on the AP-7 section passing through the Vallès Oriental and Vallès Occidental. We had said that the limit would be 110, but it could be 100," explained Llatge. Although he assured that this will help to reduce accidents, he emphasized that it will not have a very significant effect in terms of reducing congestion, but that it will help to “make people feel calmer and thus avoid congestion situations”.