If you’re a driver or a pedestrian in Spain, certain crossings will work a little differently starting from this October. Here’s what you need to know.
From this autumn, the traffic light system in Spain will change in particular situations, a move that will affect both drivers and pedestrians.
The Spanish General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) has announced a new change, which will come into effect on October 1st, 2026.
The traffic lights themselves won’t be changing, they will still have the traditional red, amber, and green lights, but the way they work at different types of crossings will be different.
Basically, the DGT will making a modification to the General Traffic Regulations.
The new regulations state: “As a general rule, at pedestrian crossings with traffic lights reserved for pedestrians, the flashing amber light for vehicles cannot coincide with the non-flashing green light for pedestrians and must be preceded by the non-flashing red light”.
Essentially it means that when there is a green man for pedestrians, there can no longer be a flashing amber light for cars at the same time.
In the past this led to much confusion because on some crossings, even when there was green man for pedestrians, vehicles could proceed if there was also a flashing amber light, providing there were no pedestrians trying to cross at that time.
From October, vehicles will only be able to go when there is a red man for pedestrians and a green light for drivers. A solid, non-flashing amber light means the same as before, that they can get ready to resume driving.
This makes it a lot safer for pedestrians as many cars took advantage of the flashing light to drive on, regardless of whether pedestrians were walking or not, others didn’t look properly to see if there was a green man and were not aware pedestrians were also trying to cross.
With this measure, pedestrians will be able to cross more safely, and a red man will have to appear first to warn people to stop and then cars may proceed.
This means that in future you will know that when the man is green, there cannot be a vehicle traffic light flashing orange simultaneously.
This new regulation only affects pedestrian crossings controlled by traffic lights specifically designated for pedestrians.
The regulation does not mandate changes to traffic light programming before October 1st, but road authorities must adapt lights at crossings which are incompatible with the new regulation.
The obligation to regulate these intersections in accordance with the new regulations comes into effect on October 1, 2026.
The DGT magazine wrote an article about this very issue back in 2022, warning of the problems with the system and stating that it should change.
In that article, they mentioned the Safer Roads Foundation in the UK (SRF) which showed that flashing amber sequence for drivers at crossings was very dangerous for pedestrians. After presenting the findings of its research to the Department for Transport, it succeeded in getting the regulations changed there.
“In many cases in London, they have been changed to red-green sequence formats, with countdown indicators for pedestrians,” Michael Woodford, president of SRF told the magazine.
At the time, the SRF pointed out that Spain is the only country in the world that still has that flashing amber light for vehicles coinciding with the green light for pedestrians. “The fact that a child, correctly following the ‘green man’s’ instructions to cross, could die because of the flashing amber light is extremely worrying,” Woodford added.
The believed the answer was to “eliminate the flashing amber light for drivers”.
Ana Blanco, Deputy Director of Traffic at the DGT also pointed out that the problem with these crossings is that they send “contradictory messages” due to the “coincidence of the green pedestrian phase, in which pedestrians have priority, with a flashing amber phase, which allows vehicles to cross, creating a dangerous situation for the most vulnerable”.
Blanco emphasised that the vulnerability of children and the elderly in these situations is “especially” concerning. The risk is even greater if there are large vehicles, whose size makes it difficult to see pedestrians
