The Galapagar City Council has asked the DGT for explanations for the radar that has been placed on the M-505 highway, a road that passes through its municipality, El Escorial, San Lorenzo de El Escorial and Robledondo. The device, located between kilometers 9 and 13, has been installed in recent weeks and sets the maximum permitted speed of driving at 50 km/h in that section, as explained by the Government team, who also point out that this road is the “ second most conflictive point in Spain” in road safety.
The City Council had been fighting for four years to have this radar installed, but its installation has not been without complaints from neighbors, as pointed out by the City Council. In fact, it has been vandalized, as published The Spanish.
In 2020, the plenary session approved a motion that urged the DGT and the General Directorate of Highways of the Community of Madrid to install a radar in the increasing direction of the M-505 in the section between the Molino de la Hoz urbanization and a point at which the road becomes one lane.
According to the approved motion, this device had to be calibrated at “the corresponding average speed”, as stated in the documentation consulted by elDiario.es. No speed limit was specified in the text. At that time, the municipal corporation was led by the PSOE and Ciudadanos. Currently, the PP and Vox govern.
Originally, the far-right party had proposed that the radar sanction speeds above 70 km/h, but that limit disappeared in the motion approved by the plenary session, always according to the documentation consulted by this wording. In its proposal, the far-right party recalled that the port of Galapagar “becomes” on weekends “a transit area for all those who want to visit the Monastery of El Escorial, La Herrería or any of the monuments of said town. ”.
Between 2021 and June 2022, according to the data published by the City Council, 13 accidents occurred in the indicated section. This November, work began to install the radar, which has finally been configured with a limit of 50 km/h.
The Government team claims to have received “numerous” complaints from neighbors about “the reduced speed established.” Last week the councilors of the Madrid municipality met with the general director of the DGT to convey this feeling to him. In that meeting, it was discussed that the accident rate in the radar section “has been reduced” and “the average speed of drivers has decreased by 10 km/h.”
Ignacio Menéndez, Vox councilor and member of the Government team, explains that he passes by the point where he is located on the radar every day. “At 50km/h the car suffers,” he explains, while explaining that in this section there are several dangerous curves in which you must drive at 40km/h and a straight line in which the speed rises to 70 km/h. For this reason, he considers that “reducing it to 50km/h is crushing the driver.” Menéndez attended the meeting with Navarro and is satisfied that the DGT has told them that “they are going to study” their arguments.
“There is no estimated date” for it to start working
From the General Directorate of Traffic they explain that their responsibility is to establish the “margins” of the radar, but that these limits usually coincide with the maximum speed at which driving on the roads is authorized. In the case of the M-505, according to these sources, the Community of Madrid is responsible for establishing the traffic speed thresholds. “If the road is 50 km/h, the DGT is not going to put [el radar] at 70 km/h,” these sources explain.
As explained by the institution directed by Navarro, the radar is not currently “working.” They are carrying out preliminary checks and calibrating the device. These same sources indicate that “there is no estimated date” for the launch and for the radar to begin issuing sanctions.
The opposition appears disconcerted by the controversy that has been created. Councilor María Isabel Ramírez assures that her municipal group “has not been contacted by anyone complaining about the radar” and points out that the issue had not been discussed in the City Council either, before the controversy broke out in the media.
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