Traffic On Suðurstrandarvegur Increased By 500 Percent Since Volcano First Erupted

According to information on Vegagerðin’s website, traffic on Suðurstrandarvegur (the road near the volcano) has increased by 500 percent since the eruption began in Geldingadalur.

On March 19, exactly a month ago today, the eruption site brought traffic that had never been seen before on the lonely road that goes near the eruption site.

Deadlock

On Suðurstrandarvegur, the most amount of traffic seen on the road was on April 2nd where 4,300 cars were on the road.

On Reykjanesbraut and Grindarvíkurvegur, other roads near the volcano, March 30th was the busiest day for traffic with 17500 cars on Reykjanesbraut and 8000 on Grindavíkurvegur.

Photo credit – Vegagerðin

A major increase to traffic

Vegagerðin’s website says: “Traffic figures from previous years in the places in question make it possible for Vegagerðin to estimate what ‘normal’ traffic would have been during this period if there had been no eruption and it turns out that traffic could have increased by 21% on Reykjanesbraut, 73% on Grindarvíkurvegur and 484% on Suðurstrandavegur, during the period in question.

“It was also estimated how the eruption traffic is distributed throughout the day, on average, and then it turns out that some eruption traffic is usually around the clock, but it can be said that it starts to increase from noon and reaches a peak in the period 16:00 – 18:00 and from 22:00 – 24:00.”

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