Unmarked police motorbikes to patrol roads in Spain this summer in effort to stamp out lane hoggers, DGT warns

The crackdown comes as the Directorate-General of Traffic also plans to install 88 more speed cameras across the country, as well as mount special operations targeting the busy holiday periods

Patricia Romero

Madrid

Friday, 29 March 2024, 22:27

Unmarked police motorcycles will be patrolling roads this summer, Spain's Directorate-General of Traffic (DGT) has warned.

"The motorcyclist next to you may be Guardia Civil," the traffic authorities said. The warning comes in an interview with Spanish newspaper El País on Wednesday 27 March with the DGT's chief Pere Navarro. He went on to say that part of the new crackdown this summer is to stamp out drivers hogging the middle and left-hand lanes on major carriageways, which should only be used for overtaking, in case of heavy snowfall, or to facilitate the passage of emergency service vehicles.

Asked about speeding at the wheel, Navarro told the newspaper the DGT plans to install "88 more speed cameras" this year. On Spanish roads, "they have led to a huge reduction in average speed". "Someone overtaking you while absolutely zooming is a thing of the past," Navarro said.

Easter week with the most cars in 20 years

Between 3pm on Friday 22 March and Monday 10 April, the DGT will launch a targeted operation to mark Easter week, a period during which traffic authorities are expecting some 16.55 million road trips, the highest number of vehicles expected during this period in the past 20 years.

According to Servimedia, the DGT's travel forecasts for Easter week operations show 17 million journeys were predicted for Easter 2004, a figure which fell to 15.5 million in 2005. That was the last Easter period which comes close to this year's forecasts.

According to the DGT, this holiday period is "one of the most complicated of the year, as the number of road journeys made increases in a short space of time, with similar origins and destinations and carried out on the same days".

Last year there were 29 fatal accidents on Spain's roads at Easter, in which 35 people died.

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