Next year will bring a number of innovations and changes to drivers in the Czech Republic. Already from January they will be for example able to travel free of charge on five other sections of motorways, constituting city bypasses or through which category I roads pass. Staring in July, application for the driving licence can be made from outside the place of permanent residence in any office with extended powers. On the other hand, the Emission Measurement Stations will face a new duty: taking photodocumentation of the vehicles measured. You will find a more detailed overview of the changes below.
The Minister of Transport Dan Ťok kicked off the work on almost 10 km of the D6 motorway between Prague and Karlovy Vary in an opening ceremony The Nové Strašecí – Řevničov and the Řevničov bypass projects will relieve the local municipalities from transit traffic and reduce the travel time from Prague to this regional town. Both construction projects were tendered for two thirds of the price.
The Minister of Transport officially kickstarted the construction of the relocation of the I/16 road Slaný – Velvary. Once this road is in the new position, the traffic (which is very heavy in this area) will be diverted outside the residential development of Slaný and adjacent municipalities. The construction of the relocation will also improve the connection between the D8 Ústí motorway with the I/7 road and the connecting D7 motorway.
The change of licences applies not only to motorists this year, but also to ship navigators and crew members. It is mostly professionals who must carefully watch the validity of their papers, i.e. navigators of vessels other than small vessels who obtained the licence between 1 May and 31 Dec 2014. The duty to change the license also applies to some navigators of small and recreational vessels. For this group this only applies to older papers issued between 1 Jan 1985 and 31 Dec 1995. Altogether, there are still 10 300 licenses that need to be changed by the end of the year. Only 4700 people came to have them changed this year.
The Ministry of Transport managed to open a total of 180 km of motorways and category I roads during the four years in office. To be specific: 96 km of new motorways and 86 km category I roads are now serving drivers. Work on new construction projects is in full swing, with 123 km of new roads being under construction. The Minister of Transport Dan Ťok will also officially start the completion of the D6 motorway or the Slaný bypass on road I/16 at the beginning of next week. Other priority projects will be gradually starting in 2018.
On Tuesday, 5 December 2017, a meeting of the EU Council, consisting of transport ministers, was held in Brussels and the Minister of Transport Dan Ťok was also attending for the Czech Republic. The minister warned at the EU Council that it is a big challenge to send drivers abroad. However, the Czech Republic is still ready to contribute to finding compromises that will improve the social conditions drivers while not compromising the competitiveness of Czech transport businesses. It is in the interest of the Czech Republic to find a European solution rather than adopt unilateral national measures.