Pere Navarro, director of the DGT (Directorate-General for Traffic and Transport): "If we achieve a traffic limit of at least two people per car, we will halve the number of vehicles and emissions; this is the great challenge of the 21st century."

Every time Pere Navarro speaks , you have to listen carefully. And not just to what he says, but also to what you read between the lines. The director of the DGT attended a breakfast briefing at the Executive Forum a few days ago and, as always, left some quotes and sayings for us to remember and reflect on. The mobility law , infrastructure, driving aids, second-hand cars , safety... He touched on practically every topic , including one of the most controversial and recurring ones that has emerged recently: car occupancy .

To start, a quick dig at the politicians: "In France, they're working on their second mobility law, and here we haven't even passed the first one yet . In the last municipal elections, one of the big issues was mobility in cities , the model to follow. The future of cities will be played out in the field of mobility. Those that solve mobility well will attract investment, a future, and talent. And those that don't will be chaos," Navarro suggested. He added: "Those of us who work in road safety learned years ago that if mobility works, road safety can work. But if mobility is chaos, road safety certainly won't work," the director of the DGT asserted.

And he also warned of the drawbacks of social growth: “ There's talk of 100 million tourists this summer . We're happy, but it has its consequences. The infrastructure is what it is. It means the seams are starting to creak . Spain is a country of 50 million inhabitants, with infrastructure and policies designed for 40 million inhabitants, and this has its effects. We should not lose sight of this and take it into account,” Pere Navarro recalled.

And as we were saying, there was no shortage of mention of vehicle occupancy . A recurring topic that Pere Navarro has on his to-do list: “At the DGT, we say that moving 1,500 kg to transport one person… I don't know if we can afford that. In any case, it doesn't seem wise. What would be the objective? To try to increase vehicle occupancy . If we get two people in each vehicle, that would mean half the number of vehicles, half the fuel consumption, half the emissions. This is the great challenge of the 21st century,” stated Pere Navarro during his speech.

A speech that offered a lot to discuss and where the topic of safety could not be left out . And Pere Navarro did not disappoint with his predictions: “To give us an idea of the revolution that safety improvements, ADAS , represent. With a current car, you leave the road, roll over twice, and walk away. With a car that's more than 10 years old, you leave the road, roll over twice... And you don't get out of the car. We're heading towards a scenario, I'm going to exaggerate... We're heading towards a scenario where you won't have an accident even if you want to ,” the director of the DGT reiterated. So be it.