This weekend Prime Minister Zapatero announced - at a height of 35,000 feet closer to heaven than he is normally considered to be - that because of increased oil prices due to the Libyian revolution, there would be a speed limit of 110 kph on all motorways and dual carriageways as from March 7. He might just as well have kicked Catalan Interior Counsellor Felip Puig in the balls (Maybe he intended to?) since the latter had just spent weeks convincing environmentalists and safety organisations that the speed limits around Barcelona on all roads entering the city needed upping to a variable rate. Four days after his changes went into effect, came Madrid's new limit - for the whole country. So there Catalunya!
At times like these as an outsider I fail to understand what a 'Regional Government' is, if the Central one can overule when it likes and what it likes (or in this case doesn't like.) Can someone please tell me exactly what is it that Catalunya can decide for its citizens that can't be overuled.
As I mentioned in a previous blog (Feb 2), Puig in his arguing for the variable rate went against most sane people in Europe (apart from motoring organisations, naturally), so it was interesting to see that Zapatero restated evidence that lower speeds reduce accidents, save money and damage the environment less. Interestingly he also said a variable speed rate would be 'difficult to impose'.
Puig's reaction after this slap in the face was hardly mature. Catalunya, he said, would provide the cheapest covers (plastic stick-on type) for the current 120kph signs, since this limit would be 'only temporary'. He said that he had been considering raising the limit on motoways to 130 kph and doubted that lower limits would save any money. This latter 'pout' was despite the fact savings figures of 1,500 million euros are being bandied around. He also failed to comment on the central government's simultaneous reduction of commuter and middle-distance rail fares by 5% to persuade us to use public transport. Puig mentions that motorists won't like the new limits. Indeed in that respect he may be right - in Barcelona at any rate if La Vanguardia's poll is anything to go by. More than 70% of its readers 'felt the new measures won't save money'. But then the majority of its readers don't support the Government's policies anyway so what's new! Maybe the politicians and everyone else have kicked this particular ball around enough. Can we play another game now?<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.freefoto.com/imagelink/?ffid=21-23-25&s=m" ></script>
