On the Roads, Business as Usual. Car Traffic During the Epidemic.
It looks like we're back – traffic on the roads is back to normal.
Here is a summary of traffic on major national roads between March 1 and May 31 this year. I prepared it based on data from selected automatic measurement stations on routes: A2, A4, S3, S6, S7, S8, and National Road No. 92. Previous analyses are available here and here.
Based on data from selected measurement points, we can determine how traffic intensity has changed between major cities in Poland:
- Traffic intensity in the last week of May is 96.2% of the traffic intensity value from the last week before the pandemic (first week of March 2020).
- Traffic intensity on Sunday, May 31, is 99.3% of the traffic intensity value from the Sunday before restrictions were introduced.
- Let's compare traffic on major roads in Poland with traffic on all national roads. We will notice that the decreases on major roads were the smallest. (Exception: sections before border crossings).
- The largest drop in traffic intensity during the restrictions was 47.6%.
The chart above shows changes in weekly traffic from March 2, 2020, to May 31, 2020.
The chart above shows daily traffic changes in three selected weeks:
- 10th week (March 2–8) – the last week before the pandemic.
- 16th week (Easter Monday, April 13 – April 19) – the week with the largest recorded decrease in traffic intensity.
- 22nd week (May 25–31) – the last measurement week.
Various factors influence changes in traffic intensity, apart from COVID-19 related restrictions. These include: the distribution of holidays and days off, seasonal traffic fluctuations, restrictions on rail, air, and bus transport, weather, fuel prices, changes in road infrastructure, etc. I invite you to read other analyses of changes on the GDDKiA website:
https://www.gddkia.gov.pl/pl/a/37769/Ruch-na-drogach-w-dobie-koronawirusa-Kolejny-tydzien-obserwacji