Financial crisis causes 63 per cent fall in Spain's traffic jams
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 @ 12:40 PM
TRAFFIC jams across Spain have fallen by nearly two-thirds since the start of the financial crisis as a result of fewer commuters and residents tightening their belts.
Hard-pressed members of society are tending to only go out in the car when strictly necessary, and many have been forced to sell their vehicles to cut costs and make ends meet.
Research by the Catalunya regional branch of the Royal Automobile Club (RACC) shows that gridlocks in and around Spain's major cities and built-up areas on the coast have reduced by 63 per cent since 2010.
The report calculated the number of hours per year that a driver spends in traffic jams in cities throughout Spain and the rest of Europe.
Bilbao is currently the most-congested city, with drivers wasting an average of two hours a month, or a full day every year, sitting in traffic queues.
Madrid was very close, with motorists spending 23 hours a year stuck in jams.
Barcelona comes fifth, having seen a 76 per cent reduction in time spent in gridlocks since 2010, this now only being one hour and 15 minutes a month, or 15 hours a year.
Traffic jams in Bilbao have gone down by 48 per cent, and the average across the country is a 63 per cent decline in road queues.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com