Government delegation and the DGT meet with the Consell de Mallorca to discuss the request to remove the BUS VAO lane from the Ma-19

The average vehicle speeds reported in the DGT’s monitoring reports indicate that traffic from the central lane in the direction of entry to the city is more fluid than that recorded in the opposite direction, where there is no lane for high-occupancy vehicles.

The delegate of the Government in the Balearic Islands, Aina Calvo, received today in audience the president of the Island Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés. This is the first official meeting held by both institutional representatives after the constitution of the Council of Mallorca, and has also been attended by the Provincial Head of Traffic, Francisca Ramis; the Head of the Mobility Management Area of the DGT, Indalecio Candel González; the Island Councillor of Territory, Mobility and Infrastructure, Fernando Rubio, and the Island Director of Infrastructure and Mobility, Rafel Gelabert.

The president of the Consell has transferred to the delegate of the Government the request to delete the BUS VAO lane of the Ma-19, in the access section to Palma, which was launched in November 2022. The Delegation, together with the DGT, have proposed to hold a meeting with technicians of the institutions, to assess the suitability of removing the lane, whose implementation was supported at the time by the corresponding traffic studies. The Government of Spain will analyze the request of the Council of Mallorca and will adopt a decision based on objective data and technical criteria. It should be noted that this decision has to be submitted to the highest traffic advisory body, which is the Higher Council for Traffic, Road Safety and Sustainable Mobility.

For its part, the DGT has provided the Island Council with the data on activity in this road section, which comprises kilometers 2 to 7 of the Ma-19 and through which more than 11,600 vehicles pass each day. The figures collected in the monitoring reports prepared periodically by this body indicate that the average speed of the vehicles in the central lane of this road towards Palma is higher than that of those moving in the opposite direction, towards the Airport. Thus, while in the central lane of entry to the city an average speed of 84 km/h - and 98 km/h in the BUS VAO lane - is reached, in the three lanes that run in the direction of departure from Palma, the average speed is 82 km/h. In general, these figures reflect that the flow of traffic has not been reduced in access to the city by the Llucmajor motorway and that even this is greater than in the opposite direction, where there is no lane reserved for high-occupancy vehicles.

Likewise, the studies of the DGT verify that the total number of accidents in this stretch since January of this year, 45 in particular, shows a trend lower than that of 2019, which is the reference year because it is the last one before the pandemic and, therefore, free of restrictions on mobility, in which 50 accidents were recorded from January to July. In comparison, the number of accidents with some victims has fallen by 55% and the number of minor injuries, 14 in total, so far from 2023, is 57% lower. In addition, there have been no serious injuries or anyone killed in an accident on this stretch. Last year 3 people lost their lives in sinistros produced in the same area.

Apart from the reported accident data, it should be stressed that this morning a motorcyclist died when he lost control of the vehicle, got out of the way and hit an obstacle.

Limit of 80 km/h on the Vía de Waist

On the other hand, the provincial head of the DGT has also provided the representatives of the Consell de Mallorca with the accident statistics in the Ma-20. During the first year of validity of the speed limitation to 80 km/h on the Vía de Waist, the number of traffic accidents was halved compared to those recorded immediately before the pandemic. Thus, last year there were 101 accidents instead of the 203 that took place in 2019. The same technical follow-up reports indicate that of the six fatalities recorded between May 2021 and July 2023, three were due to a hit-and-run and another three were related to exits of high-cylinder motorcycles.

In addition, as for the penalties for traffic violations on the Palma Belt Road, of the 5,320 filed in 2022, more than half, specifically 3,600 were for speeding, compared to the 343 that were imposed in 2021. Last year, 5,334 points were dropped on Ma-20 drivers.