Easter Week Operation: the DGT foresees the largest number of displacements since 2005

The special traffic operation for Easter begins.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
31 March 2023 Friday 07:00
11 Reads
Easter Week Operation: the DGT foresees the largest number of displacements since 2005

The special traffic operation for Easter begins. Although the main course will come in the face of Holy Thursday, today -coinciding with the weekend and the start of the school holidays- the DGT launches its special device to guarantee safety and fluidity of circulation. The organization headed by Pere Navarro forecasts that between three in the afternoon on Friday, March 31, and midnight on Monday, April 10, some 16 million road trips will be recorded. This is the highest figure in the last 18 years.

According to the data collected by Servimedia, Traffic forecast 17 million trips for this period in 2004, a figure that was lowered to 15.5 million in 2005. From then until 2019 it oscillated between 12.5 million and 15.6 million . The mobility restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic limited the movement of citizens in 2020 and 2021, so no special device was activated. The forecast made by Traffic last year was 14.6 million.

The DGT itself points out that this holiday period "is one of the most complicated of the year, as the volume of trips that are made in a short space of time, with similar origins and destinations and made on the same days and hours, increases."

As usual and making it coincide with public holidays, the operation is carried out in two phases, coinciding with the largest number of displacements and in which almost 90% of the planned movements are concentrated.

Traffic forecasts indicate that from the early hours of this afternoon (from 3 to 10 p.m. and, especially, between 6 and 9 p.m.) there may be traffic problems and delays at the exits of large cities, as well as in access to coastal tourist areas.

On Saturday morning the intense traffic leaving the large urban centers will continue (between 9 am and 2 pm) and will be added to the circulation of vehicles whose destination is the recreation and recreation areas near them.

This first phase of the special operation will close on Sunday with the return of those who have enjoyed the weekend, so there will be delays in the evening (especially between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.) at the entrances to the cities, although less intense than other Sundays.

To guarantee the road safety of all those who travel and, at the same time, facilitate mobility and fluidity on the roads, during these days the DGT has the maximum availability of the means at its disposal, both technical (fixed speed cameras and speed control mobile phones, helicopters and drones, as well as cameras and camouflaged vans to control the use of mobile phones and seat belts) and humans (agents from the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, civil servants from the Traffic Management, helicopter patrols and personnel in charge of maintaining equipment and installing measures on the road).

In addition, during the three days, traffic management and regulation measures will be implemented, such as the installation of reversible lanes that facilitate movement in or out of urban centers depending on the needs, the suspension of works and the restrictions on certain goods vehicles, in specific sections and hours.