From Prague to Průhonice and back. We drove a (non)highway that confuses drivers
Since the New Year, the first five kilometers of the D1 highway from Prague to Brno have been turned into a road for motor vehicles. If it weren’t for one tweet from the Directorate of Roads and Highways, few people would probably have noticed. As we saw with our own eyes, the traffic signs here have largely remained original and completely confuse the driver.
Until recently, cars without a highway stamp driving from Prague to Brno were only allowed to drive legally up to the second exit at Šeberov. From the New Year, they can safely continue another five kilometers, all the way to Průhonice in Central Bohemia. For motorists who do not buy a year-round coupon, they opened up a convenient way to, among other things, the vast shopping area in Čestlice.
Drivers beware! The existing section of the D1 highway between Spořilov and Průhonice, approx. From 1 January 2023, 5.2 km is a Class I local road owned by Hl. city of Prague. This section is excluded from the toll network from Sunday. At the same time, expect to adjust the speed to 110 km/h. pic.twitter.com/CIoI7duNLV
— ŘSD Central Bohemian Region (@RSD_Stredocesky) January 2, 2023
Drivers on the newly marked section of the road for motor vehicles do not need a highway stamp, but they do need to reduce their speed from the original 130 km/h to 110 km/h. And those who are less observant may not even notice the change. The original green highway lights remained.
After all, even the mayor of Průhonice, Petr Beneš, who learned about the whole matter from the media, did not notice the change in road markings. “You say one hundred and ten? We fought for years for cars to pass through here at a maximum speed of eighty,” he says. According to Beneš, the residents of Průhonice are troubled by noise, and Martin Kupka is said to be the first Minister of Transport to listen to their long-standing pleas.
However, Petr Beneš is not completely satisfied with the new arrangement. “We would need the speed to be reduced as far as the Modletice exit, this way it will only help us half way,” he thinks.
Minister Kupka admitted to the Aktuálně.cz server that the speed of 110 km/h is a compromise that takes into account the parameters of modern three-lane communication on the one hand and the interests of the surrounding municipalities on the other. “Municipalities located north to northeast of the highway in the direction of Prague have an anti-noise barrier, but the part to the southwest is not protected. And that is exactly what the reduction in speed will benefit,” believes Kupka.
However, as we could rather see for ourselves on the spot, the transformation of the highway into a road still has the character of a secret action. Although the road sign with the highway symbol replaced the sign with a white car on a blue background, everything else remained the same: the original green traffic lights and the highway odometer, which the ministry does not plan to change in the future. According to Martin Kupka, renumbering the entire D1 would be unnecessarily expensive.
According to motoring lawyer Michal Dlabola, if the police decided to immediately enforce the new speed limit despite the confusing signage, they would have a great chance of success. “The fact that they are on the green information section is not important. From the point of view of the law, what is important is the traffic sign that is there,” says the lawyer.