Should trucks be banned on the AP-7 highway on weekends to prevent congestion?

This Monday was Whit Monday, meaning that June 4 to 6 was a long holiday weekend here in Catalonia. And as a result, a staggering 238,700 vehicles – many of them full of urbanites returning from a weekend of leisure along the coast or inland – made their way back to the Barcelona area on Monday night.

The AP-7 highway, which runs all the way from southern Spain to the French border and is now toll-free, was by far the busiest: in Catalonia, at one point, cars were in bumper-to-bumper traffic for almost 40 km in both directions.

Because of this, Ramon Lamiel, the head of the Catalan Traffic Service, conceded that Catalonia has "a mobility problem" especially when it comes to "travel from the Barcelona area to holiday hotspots" in an interview with RAC1 radio on Tuesday.

And with only two weeks to go for Sant Joan summer solstice festivities, when traffic is likely to be just as bad, authorities announced they were "considering new measures" – including, possibly, banning heavy vehicles (that is to say, trucks and trailers, for example) on the AP-7 on weekends.

The Catalan government has also signaled it would be in favor of lowering the highway's speed limit from 120 km/h to 110 km/h (or even 100 km/h in parts of Vallès county) to prevent accidents as drivers sometimes fail to maintain safe distances between cars.

While the measures are yet to be approved – and a new speed limit would have to be greenlighted by the Spanish government – critics were quick to voice their concerns.

Catalonia's Transport Guild, for one, argued that banning trucks on the AP-7 would be "disproportionate," especially as they have been forced to use the road since 2018, when it was not toll-free.

"It's not fair to get rid of us now that the highway is free," a statement issued by the group on Wednesday reads. This sentiment was echoed by the Transport Organizations' Association, which called the proposal "unfair."

On the other hand, RACC, one of Catalonia's largest car insurance companies, is open to potentially banning heavy vehicles during rush hour, but said there should also be additional lanes and more traffic officers. As for the speed limit, however, the organization argued it would not help traffic jams, and said reckless drivers were to blame for accidents, not the speed limit.