The AP-7 motorway is, at this moment, a problem of state dimension and priority. We can measure the impression of congestion and lack of functionality through an objective measure such as the number of accidents. Beyond the driver's perception, this is a verifiable reality. In the last five years, accidents have multiplied by more than 2.6 as a whole and by more than 3.3 in the province of Tarragona. This is a maximum record on a Spanish scale. We continue in an old trend that results in the fact that, in Catalonia, the roads that depend on the ministry do not alleviate their accident rate but rather increase it, in dissonance with the rest of the ministerial roads. It could be argued that Catalans do not drive well and that anyone who drives and crosses Catalonia is Catalan, but if we discard this argument we must go to other explanations.Only the density of trucks explains the incidence of accidents. From now on, we will have time to present the figures. The AP-7 does not reach the maximums of the average daily traffic intensity (ADT) of other Spanish roads, for example many in Madrid, where the ministry possesses it abundantly, but this isolated piece of data does not explain the reality; it is necessary to add the trucks (more absent there).If the ministry calls the Mediterranean Corridor a half of the Peninsula that is at least two-thirds of its population against an Atlantic Corridor that is the rest, and both contain Madrid, then we must note that this half of the Peninsula ends in a single bottleneck, which is the AP-7 from Tarragona upwards, and that here the entire Mediterranean facade is added to the historical axis towards the peninsular center (Lleida-Zaragoza-Madrid and the south). In the official maps of the Mediterranean Corridor, the network is very diverse and plenty of railway is planned for the peninsular interior, a sum and complement to the motorways themselves, but everything ends up in Tarragona. And from here we add the Catalan system, which is much more than the Barcelona region, because around the other three provincial capitals there is volume, continuity, and a joint system, passing through the Vallès, which is, in industrial matters, what Catalonia is to Spain.Any credible future policy must speak about reducing accidents. Any other announcement is not acceptable. This must be the objective, designed for a period of a few years and evaluable step by step. Working hypothesis exercises and possible corrective measures that do not contain this premise are not valid. This price of blood must be lowered. And, from now on, it will be necessary to remember this with every new accident data point. Province by province, Barcelona, with respect to Madrid, more than doubles the number of accidents per kilometer of ministerial road.
In the available data, the access section to Catalonia from the south, from Amposta to Salou, in a decade (2013-2024) has multiplied the number of trucks by almost four (3.65) in a much faster growth than light vehicles (1.94). Trucks have reached a sustained annual growth of 12.68%, double that of light vehicles, a striking figure that leads to almost one truck for every two cars, with the forecast that in 8 years we will almost tie. It turns out that accidents in dense areas, both in Madrid and Barcelona, decrease the proportion of the number of deaths. We collide more, but we kill ourselves less. In empty Spain, people kill themselves because they speed too much on empty roads. However, here, due to our high ceiling of accidents, we also end up having too many deaths.This entire half of the Peninsula facing the Catalan pre-coastal area, or AP-7, will only be resolved with a new railway line specifically for freight. Everything else is smoke. The current Mediterranean Corridor is a fiction without data that hinders the Rodalies, the Regional lines, and the high-speed rail of Catalonia. Without a business plan that evaluates the volume of trucks we need to remove, we would say that there should be about ten thousand daily along the AP-7.
In Spain, trucks are a problem on the AP-7, from Valencia to Girona, on the A-2 in Lleida and Barcelona and, more punctually, on the A-4 in Madrid. But the maximum number of accidents are on the AP-7 and the A-2 in Barcelona and on the M-40 in Madrid. The Catalan singularity stands out prominently. If this is the provincial scale, in the Vallès the AP-7 breaks records, because it triples the Catalan average for this road.The country must be able to take a leap forward, just as the construction of the AP-7 was. Today, Catalonia would not be what it is without the scope of the project for this motorway from more than half a century ago. The accumulated historical investment deficit by the State more than pays for a new railway line, specific for freight, along the pre-coastal range, a line that we have proposed as an additional lane for the high-speed train (AVE), which would go from one to two per side, specialized, yet interoperable.Only an analysis in terms of accident and truck counts clarifies where we are, objectifies reality, establishes a position, creates a country-wide consensus, and allows us to outline alternatives. And the consequences that would derive from this in management must be based on the Basque model: transfer of the ministry's roads to Catalonia, proximity management, and tolling. There is no other way to curb the toll of accidents.
