The so-called bus-VAO lane is a specialized/specific lane that the regulations do not allow to be installed on highways or freeways.
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The infrastructure technicians of the Consell
According to the report entitled “Les considerations sobre la implantació del bus-VAO a l’autopista MA-19”, elaborated by the technicians of the Department of Territory, Mobility and Infrastructures of the Consell de Mallorca, the existing bus-VAO lane is considered a specialized lane.
The technicians of Infrastructures of the Consell de Mallorca assure that this type of lane is not allowed on highways according to regulation 3.1 of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. Therefore, they reaffirm that it violates state regulations.
In fact, it should be remembered that in Mallorca there is no road that is a dual carriageway, they are all freeways, dual carriageways or conventional roads. As a consequence, the specialized lanes can in no case be established on a freeway, they reiterate to the technicians.
The section of the Ministry’s regulations that have created confusion is the last paragraph of point 8.9.2 which states: “Bus-VAO lanes will generally be established on urban and peri-urban stretches using a platform (newly created lane) located in the median of a freeway or more often of a dual carriageway or a lane specifically for such use. Usually, the reversible type (lane that opens by the hour) will be used”. In neither case are both circumstances present?
Although this last point that speaks of a bus-VAO lane as a specific lane may have created confusion, the technicians remind that a specific lane cannot be installed on a freeway as stated in point 8.9.1.2 of the Ministry’s implementation criteria and limitations.
The Councilor of Territory, Mobility and Infrastructures, Fernando Rubio, in statements to the media, recalled that these “are statements supported by the technicians of the Consell de Mallorca. It is not an ad-hoc report nor has it been requested to any external company. It is the technical officials of the Consell who have drafted this report”. Rubio added that “tomorrow morning all the media will have access to this report”.