March 26, 2024.- Tomorrow Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. the second phase of the Special Operation that the General Directorate of Traffic starts, due to the increase in road trips that are expected to take place during the main days of Easter.
This is the most important phase in terms of volume since 1,158,000 trips are expected in Castilla y León by road until midnight on Monday, April 1, also festive in seven autonomous communities (Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, Basque Country, La Rioja, Valencian Community and Navarre).
Since the start of this Special Holy Week Operation last Friday, and until midnight on Monday 25, 2 people have died on the roads, so Traffic insists once again on calling prudence at the wheel: 0 alcohol, driving at a suitable speed, taking breaks every two hours or 200 km, putting on your belt… Tips known to everyone but still not taken into account when putting yourself at the wheel of a vehicle.
This holiday period is one of the most complicated of the year, as the number of trips increases, taking place in a very limited period of time - in the same days and hours - and with similar origins and destinations. For this reason, the main objective of the device is to mitigate as much as possible the retentions that may be generated by the high demand for vehicles in a specific period that exceeds the capacity of the tracks, as well as any other incident that may arise on the road.
CIRCULATION FORECASTS
During this second exit operation, the main flow of traffic will be carried out from urban centers to coastal tourist areas, second residences, towns with traditional religious events or mountain tourist areas.
The roads with the highest traffic intensity in Castilla y León in this operation will be: AP-1, AP-6, A-1, A-6, A-62, A-66, A-67 and N-630
From the early hours of the afternoon of Wednesday (especially between 15 and 23 hours), there may be problems of circulation and retention in the exits and accesses of the large urban centers, both of the peninsular interior and those located on the periphery and coast, moving as the afternoon progresses to the destination areas.
Thursday will continue from the early hours of the morning (especially between 8 and 14 o’clock) the intense outbound traffic of the large urban centers.
During Friday 28th, the morning will continue the movement of vehicles out of the big cities, which may cause high traffic intensities. With the exception of the first two, this day will be mainly short distance trips to leisure and recreation areas close to urban centers. In the afternoon, already throughout the national geography there will also be short-distance movements towards towns where processions are held.
Saturday will be the quietest day of this Special Operation, with traffic problems occurring in the morning in short-distance movements in destination places, especially in access to coastal towns and coastal roads, and, in the afternoon, long-distance return movements that can cause high intensity in some road axes.
On Sunday the first return of this Special Operation begins in the Communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid and Murcia, so throughout the day traffic management and regulation measures will be installed to favor the entry of vehicles to the large urban centers.
Traffic problems can occur, especially between 13 and 23 hours, on the main roads that channel the entire return movement of Holy Week, highlighting by their intensity the network of highways and highways, as well as the roads of coastal and coastal areas and, late in the afternoon, the accesses of the large urban centers.
Finally, on Monday 1 there will be a return in the Autonomous Communities in which this day is festive (Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia, Valencian Community, Navarre, Basque Country and La Rioja) which will cause traffic problems in a period similar to the previous day (from 13 to 23 hours) on the main roads of these Communities, as well as on the access roads of the neighboring provinces. In the other Communities there will also be return movements since, in some of them, it is not until Tuesday when school and university activities are resumed.
TRAFFIC REGULATION AND MANAGEMENT MEASURES
To facilitate mobility and fluidity on the roads, measures will be implemented to regulate the outbound traffic of large cities such as:
- Installation by rail cones in the opposite direction to the usual one that increase the capacity of the track, distribute traffic and relieve congestion.
- Paralysis of the works that are being developed on the road with two main objectives, reducing the congestion that a work can bring with it by reducing the number of available lanes and improving road safety, since the presence of workers and machinery in the work area can represent a risk both for the drivers, and for the operators who are working in it.
- Restrictions on certain goods vehicles, in specific sections and times. This measure is adopted to improve the fluidity of traffic in those times of greater demand, give more capacity to the road by temporarily removing certain trucks and homogenize the speed at which the other vehicles circulate by having similar circulation speeds and a more constant speed.
The restrictions on movement to trucks can be consulted on the DGT website and are published at the beginning of the year in the BOE.
- Alternative itineraries: Prepared by the General Directorate of Traffic with the aim of avoiding circulation through the center of the Peninsula which is the area of greatest circulatory traffic in this period. These itineraries can be used both for those drivers who drive in the direction of greater traffic demand, and for those who go in the opposite direction and can be “penalized” by any of the established regulatory measures.
All these measures, in addition to the special device by autonomous communities can be consulted in the following link of the DGT website.
https://www.dgt.es/conoce-el-estado-del-trafico/recomendaciones-de-trafico/
FOR YOUR SAFETY
In addition to adopting traffic regulation and fluidity measures, the DGT has technical means (fixed and mobile speed control radars, helicopters and drones, as well as cameras for the control of the use of the mobile and the safety belt) and human means (agents of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, personnel of the Traffic Management Centers, helicopter patrols and personnel in charge of the maintenance of equipment and the installation of measures on the road) to ensure the correct behavior of all road users.
Short trips that take place on conventional roads once they reach the holiday destination will also be subject to control by agents of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard, who will monitor speed, use of the safety belt, overtaking and controls of alcohol and drugs, among other factors.
Finally, remember, as this year’s awareness campaign says, that driving is not an individual act, but a shared responsibility, which has direct consequences for the other users that are part of the circulation ecosystem, “Driving is sharing”.
ALWAYS INFORMED
The General Directorate of Traffic provides updated information, both on the traffic situation and on the incidents that may exist, through the accounts of X: @DGTes and @informacionDGT, in the news bulletins on radio and television, on their website www.dgt.es as well as on phone 011.
In addition, real-time road status information is accessible to traffic information providers (browsers) at the national traffic information access point (https://nap.dgt.es/)