Editorial | The return of tolls

by time news

Mandarin the toll barriers were lifted a year agoafter the Central Government’s decision not to renew the concessions that had ended, a historical grievance was put to an end. The impact of the newly launched free toll mainly benefited territories such as Catalonia, which had been penalized for decades compared to those where free toll roads were directly implemented. Several problems were raised at the same time that the passing of time has only confirmed, without it being possible to claim that it has been a surprise. The non-implementation of an alternative financing system to sustain the maintenance that the concessionaires were doing until then is beginning to be noticed in the state of the roads. And the predictable traffic spillover inevitably led to flow and safety issues.

The latter seems to have been the aspect in which the balance sheet is more balanced. Logically, the displacement of vehicles on motorways has also moved the place where accidents occur. But changing the roads that concentrated the number of accidents for safer motorways has reduced the overall number of accidents. More questionable are the consequences of drivers’ travel habits on the smooth functioning of the road network. The actions planned by the Ministry of Transport, such as the creation of additional lanes and new accesses that make the highways more permeable, are considered five to eight years from now, and can hardly arrive sooner. But there are other conjunctural measures, possible in the short term and before which the different administrations are showing a lack of reflexes. From the ban on trucks overtaking or the reduction of speed, in certain sections or times, to a campaign to inform, warn and sanction practices that are not only annoying, but dangerous (slow traffic in the left lane, overtaking on the right)…

But if hold-ups are drivers’ most immediately perceived nuisance, the funding model is the main problem. The Central Government committed to Europe that the high-capacity Spanish road network would be paid, and to do so in compliance with the deadlines (2024) and criteria (payment proportional to use and pollution generated) established by the European directive . That is, the return of a toll formulaalthough the concept of payment for use changes one term to another.

Both environmental requirements and fairness favor some intelligent toll system over the alternative of funding from the Budgets (therefore, to non-users) or the vignette (a flat rate that can encourage increased travel) . Although its deterrent effect on mobility is dubious (the increase in the price of fuel has not, so it is reasonable to think that the real deterrent is a good supply of public transport), it is a scenario of a future to which it is difficult to see an alternative. Although it is it is essential that it be general, without creating new territorial grievancesand with probably some kind of social bonuses.

The Central Government is now considering delaying the solution from 2024 to 2025, so as not to bear the cost of the decision in public opinion in 2023, a doubly electoral year. It has been irresponsible not to have made progress already this 2022, even though it is loaded with so many other priorities and emergencies and presumably still marked by inflationary pressures, and it will be even more so if we continue to let time pass. This is one more of the endless reforms and decisions that accumulate in which a transversal pact would be necessary to agree on a stable model, and to prevent the fear of who is in the central government or the electoral calculation of who aspires to reach it lead to to inaction

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