New laws to allow motorcyclists to use Spanish hard shoulder
After a lot of pressure from Spanish motorcyclists it looks as though their pester power has won out and the Spanish Government is intending to legalise the use of motorcycles on the hard shoulder (or ‘emergency lane’ as it’s known in some parts of Europe). Clearly this will not be without strings or rules…It will only be allowed when the traffic is in a queue or moving slowly. When doing this, motorcycles or other PTWs must stick to a strict 30kmh (18mph) speed limit. The change is also going to apply to smaller roads like dual carriageways and on those, motorcyclists must give way to bicycles, agricultural vehicles and, of course, emergency vehicles.
This should make life a lot easier for Spanish bikers, meaning that they won’t have to filter through stationary traffic any more. The hard shoulder is a better option than a motorway traffic jam, but has concomitant hazards. There is always a risk of debris from the motorway building up on the hard shoulder as there’s less traffic to carry it away and disperse it, so this is something motorcyclists must stay frosty for. Also there are occasions where main road traffic may need to pull into the hard shoulder if, for example, they are having mechanical difficulties or there is an accident on the main carriageway, so an eye needs to be kept open for this while the hard shoulder is in use.
One of the main uses of the hard shoulder is for emergency vehicles which may need to get to an accident fast, in which case motorcycles would have to get out of the way sharpish and should be vigilant for ambulances etc at all times.
As it stands the Spanish equivalent of the Highway Code is expected to be updated and formalised regarding this change before next year, so that the legal use of the hard shoulder by bikes is written in.
It would be great if this Highway Code change came in here, but it doesn’t seem likely as we don’t have the quantity of motorcyclists that Spain does and somehow it doesn’t feel as though the Government looks very favourably upon motorcycles here. There are a lot of motorcyclists in Spain, in fact Spain is around the fifth biggest European motorcycle riding country, so perhaps motorcycles have more power to their arm, and more miles of open road to traverse, than we have here in the UK. Anyway good for the Spanish Government, a sensible plan to reduce traffic congestion and make everybody, particularly motorcyclists, that bit safer.
It will necessitate some enforcement and Spanish motorcyclists will need to be educated to use the roads in a different way and to keep their wits about them. Although it behoves motorcyclists to be traffic aware at all times anyway, in order to protect themselves from possible harm on the roads. There will need to be good signs and awareness campaigns to educate motorcyclists and other road users about the new rules and guidelines.
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