This morning, 10 June, the new speed limits on the ring road came into force, once the works that will put an end to the restrictions that set a maximum speed of 60 kilometres per hour have been completed. After several months of work, an issue that has also had significant political implications has been resolved, with new parameters being established for traffic on Palma’s main motorway.
This will remove the restrictions in setting a speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour in the direction of the airport from the Génova tunnel to Can Blau, where a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour will be established in both directions.
On the other hand, on the section between the Estadi Balear (Can Blau) and the access to the Inca motorway in the direction of Andratx, the maximum speed will be 90 kilometres per hour, with an extra lane being provided to accommodate the high flow and volume of vehicles that pass through there every day, and even more so during the high tourist season.
The aim of the Council of Mallorca with these new measures and speed limits on the ring road is simply to reduce or prevent traffic jams and congestion, which have become part of the daily landscape on the motorway, with a reduction of around 20% expected. The new signage has already been installed and will be fully operational on Tuesday, when vehicles will be able to travel at a speed more in line with the infrastructure’s capacity.
The number of vehicles per inhabitant has grown significantly in Mallorca over the last 20 years, since in 2003 each Mallorcan had 0.77 vehicles. Although the population has increased significantly, the number of cars has been even higher. It should be noted that in 2023 the number of vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants was exactly 907.34 compared to 900.31 in 2003. However, it is still too early to speak of a change in trend. The latest data shows that in North America the figure is 860 per 1,000 inhabitants.