Abolish highway tolls and ban the sale of trucks. There is an opinion from the Parliamentary Committee

It is about the Government Amendment Project to the Highways Act and the National Roads Fund.

During the committee meeting, the deputies introduced several amendments of a legislative nature and an amendment to enable the commencement of enforcement procedures after the entry into force of the draft law in a situation where the highway tolls were not paid. If this amendment had not been introduced, it would have been possible to continue only the proceedings already started before the date of entry into force of the amended provisions.

Although the draft amendment provides for a ban on overtaking trucks on highways, it contains a provision allowing such a maneuver provided the vehicle being overtaken is “moving at a speed significantly lower than the speed limit”.

MEPs on Thursday asked for clarification on what “well below the speed limit” means. In response, Renata Richter, Director of the Land Transport Department at the Ministry of Infrastructure, explained that according to the ministry, there will be a difference of 10 km / h between an overtaking truck and an overtaking truck.

As I mentioned, I did analyzes about the truck overtaking maneuver. Such an overtaking with a slight difference in speed – of the order of 2 km / h at a top speed of 80 km / h – means that such a maneuver takes about two minutes. With a speed difference of 5 km / h, this time drops to 41 seconds, with a difference of 10 km / h, the overtaking time is 20 seconds, and with a difference of 20 km / h, the overtaking time drops to 10 seconds. , I explained.

– We did not want to give figures related to the difference in speed, because in different conditions, even due to the difference in terrain, the transferred load may change, so for us, such a low speed will be a difference of 10 km / h and above, – said Richer.

“The reference point for these calculations is the maximum permitted speed for trucks on highways, i.e. 80 km/h,” she added.

As Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Rafa Weber, who was present at the committee meeting, said, the ministry hopes that each of the clauses related to the abolition of tolls on toll sections of highways is managed by JedkiaIn addition to the regulations banning overtaking trucks, they will come into effect on July 1 this year.

– We want the provision related to preventing overtaking of heavy vehicles to enter into force upon provisions for exemption from tolls, that is, on the same day. Weber noted that this assumption is July 1.

He stressed that “these two elements, in our opinion, are identical.” – We assume that there will be more light vehicles on the highways, because there will be no tolls, and on the other hand, we want to make room for these vehicles. He explained that we want to increase cross-country ability and productivity.

The purpose of abolishing highway tolls paid by motorists of vehicles whose maximum permitted weight does not exceed 3.5 tons (i.e. passenger cars and motorcycles), as written in the project justification, is to maintain or even increase the communication possibilities of citizens and reduce the actual expenses incurred by motorists .

“No payment means that on more than 1,300 km of the motorway network operated by the public side, drivers of passenger cars will move freely, without having to pay tolls” – he added.

Currently, the toll sections of state highways are A2 Konin – Stryków and A4 Wrocław – Sośnica. However, your boss will still charge you monetary From motor vehicles with a maximum permissible weight of more than 3.5 tons and buses traveling along sections of the motorway.

As Deputy Minister Weber reported on Thursday, as a result of the resignation from motorway tolls from drivers of passenger cars, revenue from tolls will decrease by about PLN 200 million per year, which is about 2.5 percent. Proceeds from the National Roads Fund.

The draft amendment also prohibits the driver of a vehicle whose gross weight exceeds 3.5 tons to overtake a motorized vehicle on a motorway and highway with only two lanes for a given direction of traffic, unless the vehicle is moving at a significant speed below the speed limit for heavy goods vehicles applicable on a given road. The ban will not apply to vehicles carrying out cleaning, repair or upgrading work on the road and emitting yellow flashing signals.

As indicated in the Explanatory Note to the project, the provision presented aims to reduce negative behavior in relation to road safety, i.e. left lane blocking and speed limit exceeding on motorways and motorways by drivers of heavy goods vehicles.

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