Forecast of 18.2 million road trips during Christmas

Christmas and New Year Traffic in Spain

As of 3:00 p.m. on Friday, December 23, the General Directorate of Traffic starts up the special device for regulation, management, and surveillance of the forecast 18.2 million road trips for the Christmas holidays, a campaign that will end on Sunday, January 8, 2023.

As usual, different phases have been established that coincide with the main Christmas festivities and that this year also take place on the weekend.

1st phase, Christmas: From Friday 23 to Sunday 26 December in the communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla la Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra and La Rioja, a holiday on Monday 26. In the regions that do not transfer the holiday to Monday, the device will end on Sunday 25. For this first period, 4.4 million trips are planned.

2nd phase, New Year’s Eve: From Friday, December 30 to Sunday, January 1, except in the communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Castilla y León and Murcia, where it will last until Monday, January 2, as it is a holiday in those communities.

3rd phase, Three Kings: From Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 January, at which time the special Christmas device will be concluded.

Many of the trips, both long and short, will go to second homes, mountain areas for winter sports, and Christmas tourist attraction areas, as well as commercial areas.

A single goal: return

The purpose of the device is for people traveling by road to reach their destinations and return without incident.

For this, the DGT has the maximum availability of human resources (Agents from the Traffic Group of the Guardia Civil, civil servants from the Traffic Management Centres, helicopter patrols and personnel in charge of maintaining equipment and installing measures on the road) which, among other functions, will be in charge of:

Facilitate the mobility and fluidity of traffic, as well as ensure your Road Safety on the roads.

Maintain circulation in proper Road Safety conditions for all kinds of vehicles on roads with sections or areas affected by adverse weather conditions such as snow, ice, fog, rain and wind.

Help users in the event of any incident or unforeseen event that may arise on the trip and monitor the correct behaviour of road users with the human and technical resources available to the agency: 780 fixed radars (92 of them section) and 545 speed control mobile phones, in addition to 13 helicopters, 39 drones, 245 cameras and 15 camouflaged vans to control the use of mobile phones and seat belts.

Inform promptly about any incident on the road through the traffic information bulletins in the different radio and television stations, on the web www.dgt.es and mapamovilidad.dgt.es , on Twitter @DGTes and @InformacionDGT and on the telephone 011 Likewise, disseminate advice related to safe and responsible mobility.

Intensify speed and breathalyser controls as an instrument for the prevention of road accidents.

Put into practice what is known to avoid unnecessary suffering

Citizens know the importance of complying with traffic regulations, that driving is an activity that requires maximum attention, that alcohol and drugs are incompatible with driving and that wearing a seat belt saves lives, but what many drivers do not assume is that road accidents do not always happen to others and that in a matter of seconds the life of any person can change.

Therefore, the message is clear, as recalled by the General Director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, alluding to the message of the awareness campaign that the organisation has created for Christmas “hopefully this campaign will help people realise of everything that the road can take away from you and that no one has to recreate the Christmas album that you could not live, for not respecting the rules”.