Road transport

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The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. First wave: from the first cases to the end of June 2020

Monographs from the National Atlas of Spain.


Thematic structure > Social, economic and environmental effects > Mobility > Road transport

Map: Key map to the gauging stations. 2020. Spain. PDF. Data.

The road network allows the production system to function by connecting people and goods with the different origins and destinations. Heavy-duty vehicles account for less than 10% of journeys made by road, despite the fact that over 95% of goods are transported by this mean of transport in Spain. Flows of people prevail (mainly using individual means of transport) whether for work, leisure or study purposes. These trips flood the accesses to major Spanish cities everyday due to the different levels of specialisation in each territory and to the extension of diffuse city models. It shall therefore not be a surprise that figures on traffic reveal very precisely the effects on people of the travel restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The measures introduced to sure-up supplies to the population such as priority lanes for lorries, access to essential services or temporary exemptions from the usual driving and rest time regulations, meant that freight traffic was less affected than passenger traffic during the four months considered as the reference period for 2020 (Báguena, 2020). When restrictions were lifted, road traffic -particularly heavy-duty vehicles- recovered regular traffic figures faster than other means of transport, both in terms of domestic traffic and cross-border trips (Martos, 2020).


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Co-authorship of the text in Spanish: Maurici Ruiz Pérez and Joana Maria Seguí Pons. See the list of members engaged

Adaptation of the text and translation into English for this international version: Andrés Arístegui Cortijo (Translator in chief)


Average Daily Traffic Flow

Traffic flow is one of the main variables taken into account when assessing traffic. It is the total number of vehicles passing a road section in a given time.

The following paragraphs are devoted to comparing the average weekly traffic flow recorded at some of the gauging stations managed by the Directorate-General for Roads (Ministry of Transports, Mobility and Urban Agenda) from March to June. The information is displayed by vehicle category, and data for light-duty vehicles (ldv) and heavy-duty vehicles (hdv) are shown separately. The graphs show the variation in traffic flow for each type of vehicle in 2020 in relation to 2019. Traffic flow is one of the main variables taken into account when assessing traffic. It is the total number of vehicles passing a road section in a given time. The following paragraphs are devoted to comparing the average weekly traffic flow recorded at some of the gauging stations managed by the Directorate-General for Roads (Ministry of Transports, Mobility and Urban Agenda) from March to June. The information is displayed by vehicle category, and data for light-duty vehicles (ldv) and heavy-duty vehicles (hdv) are shown separately. The graphs show the variation in traffic flow for each type of vehicle in 2020 in relation to 2019. The analysis on mobility by assessing the Average Daily Traffic Flow in 2019 and 2020 reveals sharp differences between gauging stations for all types of vehicles. It also shows that the most significant drops occurred during the ‘temporary non-essential economic hibernation’ from 30 March to 9 April (third and fourth weeks of lockdown which were weeks 14 and 15 of the year 2020). During this period, light-duty vehicles registered the sharpest drop (over 80%), whilst heavy-duty vehicles fell by around 70%. Also figures on heavy-duty vehicles recovered more quickly than those for light-duty vehicles in May and June 2020.

Over 140,000 light-duty vehicles/day (ldv/d) were recorded in 2019 on the motorways in the metropolitan areas of Madrid (gauging station located on the orbital motorway M-40), Málaga (orbital motorway), and València (gauging station located on the motorway accessing from the south), all of which are areas of significant demographic and economic importance. Traffic on these motorways fell as low as 20,000 ldv/d during the most restrictive period of lockdown in 2020. Other roads, such as the A-2 motorway connecting Madrid-Saragossa (Zaragoza)-Barcelona-Montpellier, the orbital motorway in Alicante and Corunna urban motorway (A Coruña), recorded metropolitan traffic flows of 80,000 ldv/d to 120,000 ldv/d in 2019, yet figures dropped in 2020 to 20,000 ldv/d or even 10,000 ldv/d in Saragossa (Zaragoza).

The largest statistical group comprises gauging stations that recorded traffic flows of 25,000 ldv/d to 55,000 ldv/d during the reference months in the year 2019, i.e. in Asturias, the gauging station located on the motorway that connects the metropolitan area of Central Asturias (Oviedo-Gijón-Avilés) to inland Spain; in Cantabria, the gauging station located on the motorway that runs along the northern coast in Spain; in Burgos, the gauging station on the motorway that links Madrid to the Basque Country (Euskadi/País Vasco) and Paris; in Valladolid, the gauging station on the orbital motorway; in Toledo, the station on the motorway that connects Madrid and Lisbon (Lisboa); in Seville (Sevilla), the gauging station on the road that runs from the north to the south of Spain parallel to the Portuguese border; and in Murcia, the gauging station located on the motorway that runs along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. All these stations registered a drop in traffic to around 5,000 ldv/d during the most restrictive weeks of the state of alarm. Lastly, two more gauging stations were to be found registering figures below 25,000 ldv/d during the 2019 reference period, i.e. in Badajoz, the gauging station on the motorway from Madrid to Lisbon (Lisboa); and in La Rioja, the gauging station located on the motorway connecting Pampeluna (Pamplona/Iruña), Logroño and Burgos from east to west, both of which located in sparsely populated areas accounting for a relatively low share of GDP. These stations registered equally significant falls in vehicle traffic flows in the 2020 reference period, with decreases to 5,000 ldv/d in Badajoz and 2,000 ldv/d in La Rioja.

    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF) Madrid. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Málaga. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Valencia. 2019-2020. Spain.


    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Barcelona. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Corunna. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Alicante. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Saragossa. 2019-2020. Spain.


    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Seville. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Valladolid. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Cantabria. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Burgos. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Asturias. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Murcia. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF) Toledo. 2019-2020. Spain.


    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). Badajoz. 2019-2020. Spain.
    • Statistical graph: Evolution in the average daily traffic flow (ADTF). La Rioja. 2019-2020. Spain.


AUTORES.jpg

Co-authorship of the text in Spanish: Luis Santiago Gómez Díez-Madroñero. See the list of members engaged

Adaptation of the text and translation into English for this international version: Andrés Arístegui Cortijo (Translator in chief)


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You can download the complete publication The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. First wave: from the first cases to the end of June 2020 in Libros Digitales del ANE site.