Spain lives for the first time in six months its first full weekend without the umbrella of the state of alarm, which allows, among other things, to travel between communities, a situation that will have to be combined with the control of the COVID pandemic, since the virus has not yet left.
No longer need a pass to travel, many Spaniards have packed their bags and have opted for the car to travel to another community or to municipalities in the same region. In fact, ehe traffic on Spanish roads has increased by 42% in the last 24 hours, according to data from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT).
Roads of nine provinces (Alicante, Barcelona, Cádiz, Castellón, Madrid, Malaga, Murcia, Seville and Valencia) they registered during the afternoon of this Friday retentions of various considerations at the beginning of the ‘escape operation’ motivated by the first weekend without a state of alarm in more than six months.
According to the DGT, at the beginning of the afternoon in the Madrid community there were exit holds on several of its main roads, also at the exit of the city of Barcelona, and of Seville, in the direction of Cádiz, this weekend, which, in addition, the rise in temperatures will cause an atmosphere more typical of summer.
Increase in traffic at Madrid departures
Between three and seven o’clock in the afternoon of this Friday the trips by road to leave Madrid have increased up to 53 percent compared to the same time slot last week.
In this ways incoming and outgoing trips to the region have risen 39.5 percent from 3:00 p.m. on Thursday to 7:00 p.m. on Friday. According to the DGT, during the afternoon of Friday there has been intense traffic leaving Madrid, although the retentions have been caused by accidents and not by the massive influx of drivers.
Thus, there have been problems on the A1 at the height of the Jarama Circuit straight, since at that point you go from three to two lanes,) and on the A2 in Alcalá de Henares. Around 7:30 p.m., the greatest difficulties were concentrated on the A3 in Fuentidueña del Tajo (Madrid) due to an accident that has caused 10 kilometers of retention Other accidents complicated the circulation on the A42, as it passed through Torrejón de la Calzada, and on the A5 in Arroyomolinos, also in the Community of Madrid.
Exodus also in trains: Atocha, crowded with travelers
The crowds have also occurred this Friday in some railway stations in the country, such as Atocha, where during the first day of this ‘escape operation’ images of hundreds of travelers crowded at the access gates to the train tracks.
???? This is how the Atocha (Madrid) AVE station was a few minutes ago on the first weekend without mobility restrictions after the end of the state of alarm
???? Video of @Lacarreter pic.twitter.com/OjvkaRK1Vy
– String SER (@La_SER) May 14, 2021
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It should be remembered that the Community of Madrid in which the Atocha station is located It is one of the three regions of Spain that maintain a cumulative incidence of more than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days. That is, together with Euskadi and Melilla, it is one of the three areas of the country at extreme risk from coronavirus.
This situation has motivated hundreds of users on Twitter they will express their indignation when seeing the images published by Cadena SER of agglomerations at the entrances to the AVE tracks at Atocha station. “In a month we are confined again,” some users have said.
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