Between January and September 2023, road traffic counts increased by 9.1% on Via Rápida and 13.1% on Vias Expresso, compared to the same period in 2022, according to the Regional Roads Directorate (DRE) today.
According to the information provided, this Thursday, October 26th, compared to 2019, growth was higher (16.4% more on Via Rápida and 24.8% more on Via Expresso).
The same source explains that the increases relative to the first nine months of 2022, “were driven by light vehicle traffic, which saw positive variations in both concessionaires (9.2% more on Via Rápida; 13.7% more on Vias Expresso) “. In heavy-duty traffic, the variation was equally positive on Via Rápida (3.3% more), although smaller, but negative on Vias Expresso (7.0% less).
Thus, in the first three quarters of 2023, the weighted average daily traffic [which corresponds to the number of vehicles, which, on average, travel the length of each road every day] registered, in average terms, 35.9 thousand vehicles on the Via Rapida and 6.9 thousand vehicles on Vias Expresso, representing increases of 9.4% and 13.2%, in the same order.
Also according to the DRE, the evolution of light traffic (9.5% more on Via Rápida; 13.7% more on Via Expresso) had a decisive impact on that variation. “Due to the reduced volume of heavy vehicle traffic (respectively, 2.4% and 2.1% of the total), the variations compared to 2022 (plus 3.0% on Via Rápida; minus 6.7% on Vias Expresso) little conditioned the evolution of the indicator as a whole”, clarifies the same note.