Since the start of this Easter Special Operation last Friday, and up to midnight on Monday 25, 13 people have died on the roads, so Traffic once again insists on calling for caution at the wheel: 0 alcohol, driving at an appropriate speed, taking breaks every two hours or 200 km, wearing seat belts… Advice is known to all but there are still people who do not take it into account when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

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9.6 million road journeys

This holiday period is one of the most complicated of the year, as the number of journeys increases, they are made in a very limited period of time – on the same days and at the same times – and with similar origins and destinations. For this reason, the main objective of the plan is to alleviate as far as possible any traffic jams that may arise due to the high demand for vehicles in a specific period that exceeds the capacity of the roads, as well as any other incident that may arise on the road.

Traffic forecasts
During this second exit operation, the main flow of traffic will be from urban centres to coastal tourist areas, second homes, towns with traditional religious events or mountain tourist areas.

The roads with the highest traffic intensity during this operation will be:

On Thursday, from early in the morning (especially between 8am and 2pm), heavy traffic leaving the major urban centres. In the early afternoon, this second phase of departure will begin in Catalonia and Valencia, with traffic problems expected in these regions, mainly on access roads to the coast, those linking coastal towns, as well as access roads to tourist rest areas, especially between 13:00 and 22:00.

On Friday 28th, both in Catalonia and Valencia, as well as in the rest of the Autonomous Communities, vehicles will continue to travel out of the major cities in the morning, which could lead to high traffic intensities. With the exception of the first two, this day will be mainly short journeys to leisure and recreation areas close to urban centres. In the afternoon, throughout the country, there will also be short journeys to towns where processions are being held.

Saturday will be the quietest day of this Special Operation, with traffic problems in the morning on short journeys to destinations, especially on accesses to coastal towns and coastal roads, and, in the afternoon, long-distance return journeys which may cause heavy traffic on some roads.

On Sunday, the first return of this Special Operation begins in the regions of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and Leon, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid and Murcia, so that throughout the day traffic management and regulation measures will be put in place to facilitate the entry of vehicles into large urban centres.

There may be traffic problems, especially between 13:00 and 23:00, on the main communication routes that channel all the return traffic from Easter Week, particularly the motorway and dual carriageway network, as well as the roads along the coast and coastal areas and, in the late afternoon, the accesses to the major urban centres.

Finally, on Monday 1 there will be a return journey in the Autonomous Communities in which this day is a public holiday (Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, Valencia, Navarre, Basque Country and La Rioja), which will cause traffic problems in a similar period to the previous day (from 13:00 to 23:00) on the main roads in these Communities, as well as on the access roads in the neighbouring provinces. In the rest of the Autonomous Communities there will also be return movements as, in some of them, it is not until Tuesday when school and university activities resume.

Traffic regulation and management measures
To facilitate mobility and fluidity on the roads, traffic regulation measures will be implemented to regulate traffic leaving the major cities, such as:

Installation of coned lanes in the opposite direction to the usual lanes to increase road capacity, distribute traffic and alleviate congestion.
Stopping road works being carried out with two main objectives: to reduce the congestion that can be caused by reducing the number of available lanes and to improve road safety, since the presence of workers and machinery in the works area can represent a risk both for drivers and for the workers who are working on the site.
Restrictions on certain goods vehicles, in specific stretches and at specific times. This measure is adopted to improve traffic flow at those times of greatest demand, to give more capacity to the road by temporarily removing certain lorries and to homogenise the speed at which the rest of the vehicles circulate as they have similar speeds and a more constant speed is achieved.
The restrictions on lorry traffic can be consulted on the DGT website and are published at the beginning of the year in the BOE (Official State Gazette).

Alternative routes: Prepared by the Directorate General of Traffic with the aim of avoiding driving through the centre of the peninsula, which is the area with the most traffic during this period. These routes can be used both for drivers travelling in the direction of the highest traffic demand and for those travelling in the opposite direction who may be “penalised” by one of the established regulatory measures.
All these measures, as well as the special arrangements for each autonomous community, can be consulted on the DGT website.