is the DGT’s response to the challenge of the new Bus-VAO lane

First quarter of 2026.

That is the date on which the new Bus-HOV lane on the A-2 highway should come into operation at its entrance and exit to Madrid. An alternative to prioritize the use of public transport and promote the use of shared vehicles that comes with an important novelty: the road is not segregated. And that represents a challenge for the DGT and new ways for drivers to behave.

A band-aid for bleeding. The entrance to Madrid on the A-2 highway is clogged every morning. And, therefore, its output is just as congested in the afternoons. After years of searching for solutions and promising a Bus-HOV lane that seemed to never arrive, the DGT has confirmed that we will see it in the first quarter of 2026.

According to their calculations, the new lane will allow around 15,000 people to access or leave the capital in a more staggered manner, saving an average of 25% of time on their journey and adding a total of 500,000 fewer hours of traffic jams.

Users of public transport, passenger cars with more than one person inside and motorcyclists will benefit. When its implementation is completely completed, it will have a route of 19.2 kilometers between Madrid and Alcalá de Henares. Until then, the first phase will be between Madrid and Torrejón de Ardoz.

A new HOV Bus. The great novelty of this new Bus-VAO is that It is a lane without physical separation and will be activated punctually, both daily during the busiest hours of entry and exit from the capital and during special operations or during the weekend. That is, the driver will find the three usual lanes but when he starts moving, the left one becomes Bus-HOV.

To signal whether the lane is active or not, beacons on the ground and gantries have been installed along the road. When the beacons are off, the Bus-HOV lane is inactive and it is when they turn green or yellow that the system becomes active and only allows access to motorcycles, buses, cars with more than one person inside or emergency vehicles.

And I come in whenever I want? This lane, however, will have to be accessed through delimited areas. This is what the DGT calls “embarkation and disembarkation” zones. If we skip the light line created by the beacons we will be breaking the regulations and the driver may be penalized as if they skipped a continuous line. To monitor it, the DGT will have cameras to do this work. Therefore, we will not be able to leave and enter the lane as desired and it is important where these areas are located.

The DGT has confirmed that they will be at the following points when the Bus-VAO starts operating:

• In the direction of entering Madrid, the first boarding will be located at Torrejón de Ardoz (pk 18+600), the second in Rejas (pk 13+600) and the last in Canillejas (pk 7+700) to disembark all at Avenida de América.
• In the outbound direction, boardings are at Arturo Soria/Josefa Valcárcel (pk 5+850) and the Eisenhower junction (pk 11+400) and disembarkations at Canillejas (pk 9+100) and Rejas (pk 15+200) where this lane ends.

Occupancy radars? In its communications, the DGT says that “the lane will be monitored with license plate reading and occupancy detection equipment, so there will be sanctions for all those who travel along it alone or enter and exit through places that are not permitted.” That definition has popularized the term “occupancy radars.”

We have contacted the DGT and they have confirmed that the system on this lane of the A-2 uses infrared and heat cameras to detect the passengers of a vehicle and that the system cannot be deceived with a dummy, as has sometimes happened on the A-6 highway where the other Bus-HOV lane in the capital is located.

However, at the moment it is not active and they will provide more details later, when the HOV lane opens to traffic. This type of systems have been put into operation in Francewhere Bus-HOV lanes with these same characteristics are implemented.

And the fine? The fine for using the Bus-HOV lane improperly is 200 euros. It is the same one that applies in case of skipping a continuous line, so if a driver enters the lane improperly (outside the boarding places) and without complying with the requirements, he or she is exposed to a penalty of up to 400 euros, adding both violations. Anyone who does not comply with the boarding areas will be fined 200 euros.

a challenge. The new Bus-HOV lane is a litmus test for mobility in our country. The solution is relatively cheap since in this case 13.9 million euros have been spent, which have been assumed equally by the General Directorate of Traffic (Ministry of the Interior), the General Directorate of Roads (Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility), the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium (Community of Madrid) and the Madrid City Council.

The system avoids having to carry out works to create a new infrastructure but it also represents a challenge when it comes to managing traffic since a breakdown during rush hour will force the Bus-HOV lane to be deactivated so that this lane also absorbs the vehicles stuck on its right. Likewise, constant monitoring of the dividing line must be guaranteed for almost 20 kilometers to avoid false access.

Photo | DGT

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