General direction of traffic

The General Directorate of Traffic (commonly known as DGT) is an autonomous body of the Government of Spain under the Ministry of the Interior responsible for implementing road policy on roads owned by the state of Spain

In its tasks of surveillance and traffic control, the DGT has a Helicopter Unit, equipped with 21 EC120, AS-355N/NP and EC135 model helicopters, stationed at bases in Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Valladolid and La Coruña.

It was created by law 47/59, of July 30, 1959, on the regulation of competition in matters of traffic. Since then it has had 14 traffic CEOs. Since 2018, Pere Navarro Olivella has been in charge.

History

La Guardia Civil atendiendo a un vehículo averiado en Játiva (1908).

Since 1778, the year in which the Royal Decree was issued that urges "the Government of Spain to manage the safety and comfort of roads and transit for easy communication" until today, the circulatory phenomenon has been part of the Spanish government agenda. In 1845, the founder of the Civil Guard, Francisco Javier Girón, II Duke of Ahumada, directed a circular in which he discussed the importance of guarding the Caminos Reales with a Chief Officer of the line in command.

The phenomenon of trafficking began to develop increasingly in Spain at the end of the XIX century. Mobility management began on September 17, 1900 when the Regulations for the Automobile Car Service on State Highways were approved and the first vehicle was registered, a Clement that received the license plate PM-1.

One of the greatest milestones in traffic management in the XX century was the publication on September 25, 1934 of the Código de Circulación, which would mark all the regulations on traffic, motor vehicle circulation and road safety until the beginning of the century XXI. Its last articles in force would not be repealed until the approval of the General Driver Regulations in 2009.

It would not be until the 1950s when the automobile boom in Spain forced the creation of a traffic management body. In 1959, in order to meet the needs of increasing motorization, the different powers scattered among different Ministries were integrated.

Since its creation in that year, the Central Traffic Headquarters Agency has been attached to the Ministry of the Interior (formerly the Ministry of the Interior). The legal nature of the Central Traffic Headquarters is that of an Autonomous Organization defined in Law 40/2015 on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector whose purpose is none other than the development of actions aimed at improving the behavior and training of the users of the roads and the safety and fluidity of vehicle circulation, as well as the provision to the citizen of all relevant administrative services.

Since then, the General Directorate of Traffic has been improving and specializing its facilities. In the territorial sphere, it dominates all the provinces and large cities through the Provincial Headquarters. In 1982 it began the road telematic activities of variable signaling and sensorization, in order to improve road safety. In addition, the DGT is a pioneer in the use of WAP technology (Internet access from mobile devices) to check the state of traffic or incidents on the road.

In 2016, environmental badges were created that aim to classify vehicles according to their polluting emissions in favor of the objectives of the European Union in the environmental field.

In 2021, the DGT 3.0 Digital Platform or Connected Vehicle Vehicle Platform 3.0 was created with the forecast of the arrival of 5G technology in Spain in 2025. By connecting the vehicles to a central database, dependent on the DGT, you can analyze the state of traffic in real time, provide the exact location of an accident and inform the vehicles that circulate on that road of any problem on the road. The development of this platform was awarded through a tender to a company owned by KPMG, the start-up Inspice and Pons Seguridad Vial.

Organic structure

DGT Headquarters at Josefa Valcárcel Street in Madrid.

The Central Traffic Headquarters is made up of a central structure and a peripheral structure integrated into the Ministry of the Interior itself through the figure of the General Director of Traffic.

The central structure (or central services) is itself the General Directorate of Traffic, which, as stated in Royal Decree 952/2018, of July 27, is made up of the following bodies and powers:

Management and Cabinet

The management department is in charge of the general supervision of the Institution and of any function not explicitly delegated to the general sub-directors. It corresponds to the Directorate: The strategic programming of the Agency, as well as the communication and dissemination related to traffic and safety in road traffic.

General Secretariat

This department is responsible for the following functions:

• Human resources management of the Agency.
• Budget, economic, conservation and custody of property.
• The design and implementation of new working methods.
• Agency inspectorate.
• The direction and coordination of the quality programmes and the direction of the Agency ' s transparency unit.
• The momentum, coordination and implementation of electronic administration services.
• The management of the Agency ' s information and communication technologies (ICTs) corresponds, under the dependence of the General Secretariat, to the Computer Management.

General Sub-Directorate for Mobility and Technology Management

It has the following functions:

• The development of vehicle instructions and administrative procedures related to the Vehicle Registry.
• Regulation, management, management, monitoring and discipline of interurban traffic and crossings.
• The implementation, maintenance and operation of the necessary smart means and systems of transport, as well as proposals for improving road safety in the roads to reduce accident.
• Providing information on the state of traffic in real time.
• The establishment of the guidelines for the training and performance of agents of the authority in the area of traffic and movement of vehicles.
• Resolution on the installation of video cameras and similar devices for the control, regulation, surveillance and discipline of traffic.

National Road Safety Observatory

The Observatory was created in 2004 when Pere Navarro Olivella was General Director of Traffic as an objective framed within the Strategic Road Safety Plan 2004-2008. In 2012, with the arrival of María Seguí Gómez, this department disappeared, but it was resumed again in 2018 with the second term of Pere Navarro. Their functions are:

• The development and regular dissemination of statistics and data on accidents and emergencies in the field of the competences of the agency.
• The development of plans and strategies in the field of road policies.
• The impulse of research and innovation in road safety.
• Support for victims by traffic accident and the momentum of activities promoted by non-profit entities and organizations whose primary purpose is their attention, defence or representation.
• Representation of the agency in the international sphere, as well as joint work with similar bodies in other countries.

General Sub-Directorate for Road Safety Training and Education

• The management of road education, the training of drivers and the organization of fitness tests.
• The regulation, registration and control of particular drivers ' schools and the centres for the evaluation of drivers ' psychophysical skills.
• The determination of psychophysical fitness requirements for obtaining and renewing administrative authorizations for driving.
• Road information (security and education) and user information.

Regulation Unit

• The power to determine the basic technical regulations on traffic and road safety.
• The development of studies, proposals and preliminary draft provisions on road traffic and safety.
• Processing of sanctioning records in the field of trafficking, declarations of invalidity, through Estada Center established in León.

Territorial organization

Provincial Head of Traffic of Pontevedra.

Center for theoretical exams of the Provincial Chief of Traffic (JPT) of Madrid, in the municipality of Móstoles.

The territorial administration is made up of 50 Provincial Traffic Headquarters, one per province, two local Traffic Headquarters in Ceuta and Melilla and 15 local Traffic Offices (in Alcorcón, Alcira, Cartagena, Elche, Fuerteventura, Gijón, Ibiza, Lanzarote, La Línea de la Concepción, Menorca, La Palma, Sabadell, Santiago de Compostela, Talavera de la Reina and Alcalá de Henares).

In each Traffic Headquarters the different procedures related to the vehicle are carried out, which among others can be:

• Changes of ownership.
• Duplicated Circulation Permit
• Definitely down by both expert and dismantling.
• Temporary vehicle down.
• Change of data in the Circulation Permit.
• Change of residence of the vehicle holder.

or with the Driving License, which among others can be:

• Renew the Drive Permit
• Songs
• Duplicate
• Change of address

or disciplinary procedure for traffic offenses in the interurban area. In these tasks it has the support of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard.

In 2013, the DGT began to create an online appointment system. In a first phase, it is only for the Headquarters with the greatest demand for procedures, which would later be extended to all the Headquarters. At present, a prior appointment is necessary for any management related to Traffic.

Awareness campaigns

Helicopter of the DGT overflying the roads in the Community of Madrid.

Despite the multiple controls carried out by the civil traffic guards throughout the year and even more so, on long weekends or important national holidays, the DGT is also known for its impressive campaigns that leave nothing to the imagination for the portrayal of reality that they do.

There are many people impacted by the images they offer in their campaigns to reach the population and raise awareness. In this new digital era there are many technologies used and it is something that young people, above all, know and use. More and more young people are impacted by the broadcast on television, the Internet, or any other media, although there are also many who ignore these messages and continue to commit the same offenses.

In terms of driver education, the DGT also gives courses to teachers, local police officers, driving schools or professionals from Driver Recognition Centers. For their part, the strategic road safety plans have made significant progress in reducing road accidents. For example, the Strategic Road Safety Plan 2021-2030 aims to reduce road accidents by 50%.

List of General Directors of Traffic

Road safety data

The DGT is in charge of collecting data related to road safety in Spain and preparing annual reports called Main Figures on Road Accidents, which include different indicators such as the number of deaths per year. Since there are records (1960) the figures have increased each year with the increase in the number of vehicles, reaching its highest peak in accidents in 1989, with 5,940 deaths on the roads of Spain. Since that year it was decided to carry out a heavy-handed road policy, awareness campaigns and road re-education, achieving a sustained reduction since then. With the arrival of the XXI century, the Spanish accident rate figures were equal to those of other European countries. In 2010, the annual number of deaths fell below 2,000 for the first time in Spain since 1966. In 2019 the figures were around 1,200 deaths per year on interurban roads. Since August 1, 2019, the DGT has three drones, responsible for reporting violations on Spanish roads, which cross the skies at an altitude of 120 meters. In July 2020, the DGT began testing the Trukam II radar, capable of detecting offenses over a kilometer away and up to 320 kilometers per hour.

Numbers of deaths in the 21st century

Urban and interurban deaths (30 days after accident)

Source: DGT, EPData

Interurban road deaths (30 days after accident)

Source: DGT, EPData

Fundraising

The General Directorate of Traffic collects a large amount of money each year, both in penalties for drivers and in fees. In 2019, the DGT declared a collection of around 374.3 million euros in fines along with 686, 2 million euros received from fees, of which almost 85 million correspond to the Technical Inspection of Vehicles. The year that collected the most money in fees was 2019, with those 686.2 million, while the maximum obtained by sanctions it was in 2009, with almost 466 million euros, that is, 1.27 million euros per day. He warned of the risk of fraud and the decline in these public funds, a situation that has been repeated for several years.