Posted on March 08, 2011 by Fiona Hilliard

Slowing down: Spanish motorists

Life in Spain is  moving at a much slower pace as of yesterday.  On Sunday night, a group of government workers went about switching motorway speed signs from 120km/h to 110km/h as part of the government’s latest move to cut down on oil costs.

The new 10km/hr cut to the speed limit is set to stay in place until the end of June.  It is hoped that it will help cut fuel consumption by more than 5%.

A string of other initiatives are also being introduced including replacing old tyres, changing public lights to low energy light bulbs and encouraging town halls to seek advice from consultants to lower their electricity consumption.

The socialist led government is determined to curb the country’s expenditure on more than 28.6 m barrels of oil per year – amounting to a significant saving of €2.3 bn (£2bn).  The government has also pledged to reduce its yearly CO2 emissions by 12.5m tonnes.

On Sunday night, over 6,000 motorway speed signs were instantly updated, as specially employed workers pasted the new limit over the old one.

Already, opposition parties have been critical of the new initiative, saying it will have little impact on Spain’s energy bill.  Some commentators even went as far as saying that the changes to speed limits aimed to rake in more revenue from speeding fines.

They are not the only ones to find fault with the new measures.

Drivers associations in Spain are concerned that slower speed limits will increase accidents on Spanish roads, which is what happened when the speed limit dropped to 68mph during the oil crisis of 1976.

Spanish Formula One driver Fernando Alonso has been another high profile critic saying,

“I don’t support this measure, there are other much more effective measures to reduce fuel consumption than this one.”

“At 110km an hour (68mph), it is even difficult to stay awake,” he added.

Will the speed limit make a difference?  What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know!