Traffic in the Reykjavík capital area decreased by 28% in April 2020 compared with the same month last year, the biggest decrease on record. Traffic on the ring road decreased even more dramatically. While the amount of traffic has increased slightly over the past two weeks, it is still significantly lower than during the same period last year. The data was released by the Road and Coastal Administration yesterday.
The previous record for traffic decrease in the capital area was set just one month earlier, this past March, when traffic reduced by 20.7% compared to the same month last year. It was more than double the previous record, from April 2009, when traffic decreased by 9.1%. “Such numbers have thus never been seen in the Road and Coastal Administration’s data since this reporting began,” a notice from the organisation reads. Traffic has decreased by almost 13% since the beginning of the year compared to the same period last year, about four times more than the previous record for that time of year.
Traffic has been increasing steadily since Easter, in line with the data from last year, so there are signs that it is on its way to returning to previous levels. “The coming weeks will be interesting to see, as it will become more apparent how the community recovers after the gathering ban has been relaxed,” the notice states.
