Government returns maximum speed on Spanish motorways to 120km/h
Friday, June 24, 2011 @ 9:56 PM
Source: Typically Spanish
The cabinet has decided not to extend the measure which had cut the speed limit to 110km/h last March
The cabinet has decided today, Friday, to return the maximum speed on Spanish motorways to 120km/h from July 1, despite reports in the press that it will cost 600,000 € to do so.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, said that cabinet had decided not to extend the limit on speed as ‘the measure no longer made sense’.
In the press conference after the cabinet meeting he underlined however that the ‘the measure has worked’ and resulted in savings of 450 million €.
The slower 110km/h speed was put into place on March 7 this year with the argument that it would save energy at a time when the crisis in the Maghreb had seen a hike in crude prices to 116 dollars a barrel. Today it has been trading at 107 dollars a barrel.
It has to be remembered that a drop in the consumption of petrol affects the Government’s own income, as about half the price of each litre on the forecourt is made up of taxes, including the special petrol tax and IVA.