Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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stevenson3529
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Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

Post by stevenson3529 »

Hello,
Even when on holiday I still notice the road signs! I was in Ibiza 2 years ago, and on our way to the airport our bus was doing pickups from other hotels. There was a road sign in Sant Miquel, and on the EI-400 there was this RCS that had PM-804 on it. I assume that the PM prefix is for Palma, and the EI is for Eivissa. Did all classified roads in the Balearic Islands once have a PM prefix, and if so, when did they change? I noticed that Palma de Mallorca has no PM roads, all are Ma now.

P.S. Why does the capital I on that sign have a dot? there's another PM-804 example here and a dotted J here but most other signs on the island seem normal.
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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Spanish road numbering is an absolute mire - designations change often and arbitrarily. In the main the prefix indicates which tier of government manages the road, but as responsibility shifts around the numbers shift too. (The worst example is Andalucia choosing "A" as its prefix, which is also used for autovias nationwide.) But yes, MA refers to Mallorca, ME to Menorca and EI to Eivissa. Presumably at some earlier time roads across the Balearics were centrally administered from Palma.
stevenson3529 wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 13:57P.S. Why does the capital I on that sign have a dot? there's another PM-804 example here and a dotted J here but most other signs on the island seem normal.
No idea, sadly - written Catalan uses dots in some unusual places, but not on capital I or J. Turkish and Azeri do, though. Perhaps an Azerbaijani signwriter got the job of writing those signs? :?
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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PM was the provincial code until 1997 when it became IB, I'd imagine that was the beginning of the change.
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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exiled wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 14:37 PM was the provincial code until 1997 when it became IB, I'd imagine that was the beginning of the change.
Thanks. What's the reason that the road numbers changed from the provincial code (PM-x) to regional (Ma-x), (Me-x) and (EI-x) instead of using (IB-x) (I assume Illes Balears / Islas Baleares), do you know?
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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Chris5156 wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 14:24 No idea, sadly - written Catalan uses dots in some unusual places, but not on capital I or J. Turkish and Azeri do, though. Perhaps an Azerbaijani signwriter got the job of writing those signs? :?
It just looks very odd, it skews off the alignment of the sign, is there a chance that they were added on after the signs were made?
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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stevenson3529 wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 14:46
exiled wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 14:37 PM was the provincial code until 1997 when it became IB, I'd imagine that was the beginning of the change.
Thanks. What's the reason that the road numbers changed from the provincial code (PM-x) to regional (Ma-x), (Me-x) and (EI-x) instead of using (IB-x) (I assume Illes Balears / Islas Baleares), do you know?
Without digging too deep, the Province was called 'Palma de Mallorca' from 1833 to 1997, with PM on the road numbers and licence plates being replaced by IB for Illes Balears, the Catalan being the official name. In 2007 a new Statute of Autonomy was passed, and that is when I suspect the management of transport infrastructure was passed from the Balearic Regional Government to the Insular Councils.

Edit - the 1983 statute appears to have made roads a shared competency between the Regional Government and the Insular Councils, the 2007 one gave the responsibility to the Insular Councils under Regional Government authority, the statutes are in Catalan so my in head translation may not be exact.

2007 appears to be the year looked for.
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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exiled wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 15:01 licence plates being replaced by IB for Illes Balears
When in Mallorca I noticed lots of older cars with the IB- numberplates, and PM was also used (until late '90s I believe) but the Spanish standard Euro plate (0000-AAA) was introduced in 2000, which is when I think the old IB- plates were replaced.

EDIT: here's a website detailing it - PM on numberplates was retired 1996.
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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stevenson3529 wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 15:14
exiled wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 15:01 licence plates being replaced by IB for Illes Balears
When in Mallorca I noticed lots of older cars with the IB- numberplates, and PM was also used (until late '90s I believe) but the Spanish standard Euro plate (0000-AAA) was introduced in 2000, which is when I think the old IB- plates were replaced.

EDIT: here's a website detailing it - PM on numberplates was retired 1996.
Yes it was a short run. In the 1990s a number of provinces had their official names changed and this was reflected in the licence plate code. Most part this was changing the official Castillian name to the name in Catalan, Basque, or Galician. Gerona became Girona for this reason. Logrono LO was due to change to LR La Rioja on the day the new system was adopted.
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Re: Road numbers in the Balearic Islands

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stevenson3529 wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 15:14
exiled wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 15:01 licence plates being replaced by IB for Illes Balears
When in Mallorca I noticed lots of older cars with the IB- numberplates, and PM was also used (until late '90s I believe) but the Spanish standard Euro plate (0000-AAA) was introduced in 2000, which is when I think the old IB- plates were replaced.

EDIT: here's a website detailing it - PM on numberplates was retired 1996.
If you want the full details of the system (blood and gore), go to Wikpedia.
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