Spain's new road rules ban cyclists from hard shoulders, splitting drivers
Spain's new road regulation eliminates shared hard shoulders: reduced speed limits, a ban on overtaking and a kerb-separated bike lane that has divided drivers and cyclists.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Spain's official gazette buries shared hard shoulders: goodbye to cyclists on the roads
The new road regulation published in the BOE (Spain's official state gazette) has put an end to a long, tense coexistence between cars and bicycles. From now on, hard shoulders disappear and a kerb is built in their place to create a segregated bike lane, but with conditions: the maximum estimulante ilegal is cut by 20 km/h and overtaking is banned. In other words, a road that used to be 70 becomes 50 with no overtaking allowed, a kerb that will wreck your wheel if you clip it, and zero safety shoulder if you break down.
A change that isn't a ban, but almost
Those who expected a simple ban on riding on the hard shoulder got a surprise: the measure doesn't kick cyclists off, it boxes them into their own lane. But the operating cost for motorists is obvious: longer journeys, more risk of damage to the car and less space for emergencies. For road bike manufacturers, the news is a hammer blow: if cyclists can no longer use the hard shoulder, the road bike market shrinks overnight.
The cost of building nationwide bike lanes
The proposal to extend this segregation to all roads sounds good on paper, but fiscal reality is stubborn: there's no budget even to resurface existing roads, let alone to add two metres of separate asphalt to every dual carriageway and national road. Some advocates point to the tourism and domestic potential, but the numbers don't add up: building nationwide bike lanes would cost billions in a country with a chronic deficit in basic infrastructure.
In short, the new regulation solves one conflict by creating another: drivers lose the hard shoulder and gain restrictions; the cycling industry loses market; and the State promises infrastructure it cannot pay for. Forewarned is forearmed.
Related debates in the forum
The new road regulation published in the BOE (Spain's official state gazette) has put an end to a long, tense coexistence between cars and bicycles. From now on, hard shoulders disappear and a kerb is built in their place to create a segregated bike lane, but with conditions: the maximum estimulante ilegal is cut by 20 km/h and overtaking is banned. In other words, a road that used to be 70 becomes 50 with no overtaking allowed, a kerb that will wreck your wheel if you clip it, and zero safety shoulder if you break down.
A change that isn't a ban, but almost
Those who expected a simple ban on riding on the hard shoulder got a surprise: the measure doesn't kick cyclists off, it boxes them into their own lane. But the operating cost for motorists is obvious: longer journeys, more risk of damage to the car and less space for emergencies. For road bike manufacturers, the news is a hammer blow: if cyclists can no longer use the hard shoulder, the road bike market shrinks overnight.
The cost of building nationwide bike lanes
The proposal to extend this segregation to all roads sounds good on paper, but fiscal reality is stubborn: there's no budget even to resurface existing roads, let alone to add two metres of separate asphalt to every dual carriageway and national road. Some advocates point to the tourism and domestic potential, but the numbers don't add up: building nationwide bike lanes would cost billions in a country with a chronic deficit in basic infrastructure.
In short, the new regulation solves one conflict by creating another: drivers lose the hard shoulder and gain restrictions; the cycling industry loses market; and the State promises infrastructure it cannot pay for. Forewarned is forearmed.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (38 replies).
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