Major gridlocks on Spain's National No Car Day
Friday, September 23, 2016 @ 10:05 AM
NATIONAL No Car Day in Spain started with heavier-than-usual traffic jams on the road into Barcelona and an accident on the Madrid M-40 leading to tailbacks, but saw a 5% increase in passengers on the metro and outer suburban rail lines in the former.
The B-23 was clogged early in the morning, and the Gran Vía suffered tailbacks due to an accident but 'no worse than at any other rush hour', says Barcelona city council, which assured there were 90,000 fewer cars on the road yesterday.
Tailbacks on the B-23 stretched back nine kilometres, especially at the A-2 motorway interchange between Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Barcelona, and Esplugues de Llobregat towards the city's Avenida Diagonal.
Three-kilometre queues were reported on the C-31 in Badalona and El Prat de Llobregat, and up to 10 kilometres on the C-58 between Ripollet near Sabadell and Barcelona and Sant Quirze del Vallès and the city.
The outer ringroad suffered four-kilometre gridlocks.
It is the first No Car Day since 2003 to be 'celebrated' in Barcelona, and the first-ever on a working day, and saw 54 city-centre streets shut including the Vía Laietana and the Gran Vía de Gràcia.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com