With a new bill, the government intends to make it much more difficult for municipalities to reduce speed limits on the roads.
A new bill that is being discussed changes the ability of municipalities to regulate traffic on their roads. The bill removes the police as an authority in the road sector and instead gives municipalities more responsibility.
For example, municipalities are not allowed to change the speed limit on roads with more than 4,000 cars per day. Nor are they allowed to change the direction of roads with more than 1,000 cars per day.
The purpose of the bill is to reduce bureaucracy and give municipalities more room to maneuver. It is estimated that the change could save 22 full-time equivalents at the police and 11 full-time equivalents in the municipalities.
This is what DR writes.
The bill gives municipalities the opportunity to make changes to the road network without having to ask the police for permission.
However, there is a limitation on which roads municipalities can freely change. On roads with a lot of traffic, changes must be approved by the Ministry of Transport.
The bill sets limits on the municipalities' options for action on roads with a certain amount of traffic.
Several politicians in large cities are critical of the bill. They believe that it limits the municipalities' ability to implement their traffic plans.
In Aarhus, there is also concern that the bill will hinder initiatives in the new mobility plan.
Tim Vermund calls the bill "one of the greatest assaults on municipal self-government that I can remember."
He believes that it is a problem that municipalities must obtain approval from the Ministry of Transport for projects that exceed the set limits.
Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen (V) rejects the criticism completely. He believes that the bill makes life easier for drivers in cities and ensures accessibility on important roads.
"The proposal removes a number of bureaucrats in the public sector, while the goal is the same: to ensure that important traffic arteries are kept open and ensure accessibility," he says in a written response.
According to the minister, setting speed limits has always been a state task. He emphasizes that municipalities still have the freedom to change a large part of the road network.
The bill also does not include construction projects where municipalities, for example, remove a road or open up a stream.
Odense is one of the municipalities that would like to take action against motorists. In the capital of Funen, for example, a political majority wants to ban motorists from driving faster than 30 km/h in most of the city. However, they do not want to introduce zero-emission zones. Read more about it here .
