The Councilor of Territory, Mobility and Infrastructures, Fernando Rubio, has assured that the technical reports of his department reveal that it is an “illegal” infrastructure as it violates a state instruction that does not allow this type of lanes on highways, freeways and conventional roads.
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Bus-VAO lane
Fernando Rubio, Counsellor de Territori, Mobilitat I Infraestructuras of the Consell de Mallorca has revealed that the Bus-VAO lane on the airport freeway, the MA19, violates an instruction of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. “This is an infrastructure that was installed in violation of state regulations, as pointed out by our reports endorsed by technicians. Therefore, the Bus-VAO lane is illegal,” said Rubio during the plenary session of the Consell de Mallorca held today.
The technical reports of the Department of Territory, Movilitat I Infraestructuras, as related by Councillor Rubio, ensure that the instruction of the Ministry is very clear: “The specialized lanes, as is the case of the Bus VAO of the airport freeway, will not be used on highways, freeways, conventional roads and collector roads. They are designed for urban and peri-urban bus lanes with short routes and numerous stops. In addition, they will form part of service road platforms where possible.” “None of these criteria described in the standard 3.1 of Roads of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda are met by the Bus-VAO lane of the Ma19 freeway,” the reports add.
Fernando Rubio added that “We believe that, with the information available to us, it is more than urgent to initiate the procedures for the removal of the Bus-VAO lane, which we will do in the coming days by submitting the request to the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT)”. “A public institution such as the Consell de Mallorca cannot have an irregular infrastructure,” added the councillor.
Increase of the Accident Rate
The head of Territory, Mobilitat I Infraestructuras has warned of the increase in accidents in the section of the Bus-VAO lane of the airport freeway, which also points to the reports of the road technicians of the Consell: “The studies available to us state that between January 1 and July 13, 2023, there was an increase in the number of accidents in Palma direction, while in the airport direction where there is no Bus-Vao lane, there was a decrease in the accident rate”. Specifically, in the Bus Vao section from January to July, we went from 16 accidents in 2022 to 28 in 2023 (+57.1%). On the other hand, in the direction of the airport without Bus VAO, the accident rate decreased from 23 to 19 accidents (-8.3%).
The technicians also consider in their reports that this type of lane would make sense as a temporary measure for a larger project to build a segregated lane and not the occupation of an existing lane only marked with paint, as is the case of the Bus-VAO lane on the airport freeway.