Does the solution to the AP-7 depend on us?

Sunday, 30 Minuts provided a diagnosis of the AP-7 situation. The title, AP-7, on the edge, fell short of defining how the experience of driving on it has transformed since the road became free. As they sarcastically say on Toni Clapés' Versió RAC1, driving on it has become an experience akin to the movie Mad Max. It was about time journalism paid specific attention to this highway, because the degeneration it suffers is not being denounced as it should be, beyond simply reporting the traffic jams and accidents that occur there day in and day out. We are normalizing a disaster. 30 Minuts warned that the ministry had not wanted to participate in the report, a fact that betrays the neglect the AP-7 receives and the discomfort caused by the lack of investment.

The report addressed the most important problems of the AP-7, and it was very good to do so from the users' experience: from passenger cars, through large trucks and transport companies, to emergency services. However, the duration of the format necessitated a condensation of the topics and, therefore, an excessively superficial analysis. The precariousness of some signage, the insecurity at service stations and with some mafias, the poor condition of the asphalt, and the reckless drivers deserved a little more time. The idea is suitable for a documentary series, not only to delve deeper but also to convey the complexity of this asphalt ecosystem. Furthermore, in terms of imagery, the highway allows for much more scope, not only through the subjective experience of drivers but also from all the visual material generated along the route: control cameras, helicopter surveillance, radar images, videos captured by users with their mobile phones, and new vehicle recording systems. The sequences in which 30 Minuts reviewed some sections of the AP-7 on foot, to explain in detail the absurdities of the road that endanger users, were very good. Filming a highway is a difficult exercise because the speed of the road and the inherent risks make it difficult to point out details precisely. This suits the responsible parties just fine. 

There was one aspect that caught the attention: the role of Ramon Lamiel, director of the Catalan Traffic Service. In all his interventions, he had a defensive attitude, and there was not a shred of self-criticism or admission of the problems with the AP-7 or its deterioration. Of course, during the commercial break, in one of those cynical coincidences, they foisted another one of those advertisements from the entity on us, where they show us police officers informing a poor woman of her daughter's death and reminding us that on the road we must be "responsible," as if everything depended on our will.