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Why you will soon have to drive slower in cities in Spain

Spain’s traffic authority plans to lower the generic speed limit in urban areas from 50km/h to 30km/h to counteract the dramatic rise in accidents in recent years caused largely by delivery vehicles.

Published: 22 October 2020 10:56 CEST
Why you will soon have to drive slower in cities in Spain
Photo: AFP

Drivers in Spanish cities will have to keep their foot off the gas by the end of 2020, now that the country’s Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) has announced a speed limit drop for the country’s “vías urbanas”. 

DGT deputy director Susana Gómez made the announcement at a conference in Zaragoza on Tuesday, stating that a Royal Decree is currently being drafted for the speed limit in Spanish cities to be fixed at 30km/h, suggesting that it could be lowered even further.

“Speed kills and we have to argue that a speed limit of 20km/h may be more suitable for cities,” Gómez told journalists, citing London as an example of a city which has reduced its speed limit on central roads in a bid to reduce road deaths. 

The DGT deputy head stated that “something must be done” to address the 69 percent accident rise caused by delivery vehicles in Spanish cities in recent years, with Covid lockdowns and restrictions only serving to increase the proliferation of these commercial activities. But the spike in accidents isn’t just caused by delivery vans.

“Moving around when there are scooters, bicycles, motorcycles and e-scooters – which are now all used as delivery vehicles – is not easy,” Gómez said.

“Addressing the issue of ‘last-mile logistics in Spanish cities is of the utmost interest to the DGT, as is finding a way of putting pedestrians first.”

The new legislation will also include a categorisation of personal mobility vehicles which will define which ones can be used to carry merchandise of up to 350kg.

Spain recorded its lowest number of road deaths in 2019 with a total of 1,755 fatalities, but the number of fatal accidents involving cyclists and motorcyclists was the highest in nine years.

It was also the first time on record that more pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists died than car and other big vehicle drivers.  

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TAXES

EXPLAINED: How Spain’s new Social Security app works

Whether you're self-employed, an artist, a student or a domestic worker, Spain's new social security app aims to simplify and streamline bureaucratic processes you might need to do when it comes to managing your working life and pension.

Published: 17 September 2024 11:04 CEST
EXPLAINED: How Spain's new Social Security app works

Spain’s Social Security Ministry has launched a new free mobile app aimed at simplifying and synchronising tax, pension and working life procedures, allowing you to better access records and update information.

The app is specifically aimed at easing the bureaucratic burden on the self-employed, domestic workers, artists and young people studying or doing work experience.

Spain’s Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, presented the app this week, stating that it represents “a great step forward for citizens to have a closer and more fluid relationship with Social Security.

Through this application, personal data can be updated and verified; detailed information on contribution bases can be accessed and your Work Life report can be easily downloaded, among many other services.”

In Spain, your ‘Working Life report’ is known as el informe de vida laboral. According to the Social Security website, it is “a document that contains information on all the periods contributed by the worker to the Spanish Social Security system.” In other words, all the information on your entire employment history in Spain.

READ ALSO: How to check how long you have left to get a pension in Spain

The app essentially moves over the various processes usually done on the Social Security portal or in Spain’s social security offices so users can receive a more personalised service including tailored alerts and the ability to download documents to their mobile phones in offline mode.

It also allows users to easily check the details of their working life including for who and for how long they’ve worked somewhere, the type of contract they have, the working day or the relevant collective bargaining agreement, as well as information on contribution bases and how much they are owed in the event of sick leave and for calculating your pension.

How do I access and use the app?

First you’ll need to download the app from the Google Play or Apple App store. Once you’ve downloaded it to your phone, there are three ways to log-in in and register:

  • Permanent Cl@ve
  • Digital certificate (Android only)
  • SMS

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Once registered and logged in, push notifications can be turned on as well as a biometric access — either fingerprint or facial recognition.

Once this has been done, you can access your personal information, whether it be working or pension matters, and all the normal procedures you’d previously do via the portal can be carried out and all this information can be downloaded in files.

What can you do with the app?

As mentioned earlier, the new app basically aims to streamline the processes you’d normally do via the Social Security Ministry portal or in person.

This includes checking your social security number or requesting one, consulting your tax contribution bases and employment history, updating your personal details, or managing tasks for the self-employed, domestic workers artists or young people doing work experience, such as registering or deregistering as economically active and downloading supporting documents.

READ ALSO: How to de-register as self-employed in Spain

Focus on young people, freelancers, artists and domestic employment

The application offers four different profiles to use the app: self-employed, domestic employment (for both employees and employers), artists and trainees.

The autónomo profile allows you to access all the information and procedures available if you are registered or are about to start self-employment, including registration and de-registration, modifying your contribution base, consulting tax receipts, and estimating your contributions according to your income, among other things.

In the domestic employment section, whether you yourself work domestically or are going to hire someone to work at home, you can consult all the necessary information such as calculating the contributions to be paid, registering and de-registering, updating the salary information and the working hours of the employee, or consulting payslips issued.

READ ALSO: The rules for hiring a domestic worker in Spain

For artists, you can manage your inactivity, request a refund of income from contribution bases or deregister from the working artists’ register.

For students doing internships or work experience (alumnos en prácticas in Spanish) the app is useful for both those about to start their internships and for those who’ve already started them, with access to their personal profile, a guide to resolve doubts, information to find out about the benefits of pensions contributions and they can carry out procedures such as requesting the social security number, downloading the Work Life Report and consulting contribution bases.

READ ALSO: How self-employed workers in Spain can get a better pension

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