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Date Published: 09/06/2022

ARCHIVED - Spike in AP-7 accidents on the Costa Blanca since tolls and travel restrictions were scrapped

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Motorway traffic flow in the Valencia region has risen by 55%

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Spike in AP-7 accidents on the Costa Blanca since tolls and travel restrictions were scrapped

The number of road traffic accidents with victims on the AP-7 in the Valencia region has leapt 19% in the first five months of 2022 compared to the same period last year, with the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) reporting 57 crashes and four fatalities.

And traffic authorities fear that the upward trend will continue in the coming months, fuelled by the influx of travellers following intense and lengthy anti-Covid mobility restrictions and the all-important scrapping of expensive tolls on the Costa Blanca in January 2020.

"This level of traffic is here to stay, it is not going to decrease. Motorway traffic tends to increase by 30% to 50% when tolls are lifted and they are freed up," points out Luis Montoro, a professor of road safety.

And these sentiments are shared by the Mobility and Safety Traffic Service, which predicts that the Mediterranean motorway "will become even busier this summer due to holiday trips between autonomous communities and the movement of vehicles from France and central Europe heading to the south of the peninsula and North Africa".

Prior to the pandemic in 2019, an average of 40,408 vehicles used the AP-7 between Castellón and Alicante. Two years later and toll-free, motorway traffic has increased by 55% to more than 62,700 vehicles, according to data from the DGT.

The AP-7 had an arguably deserved reputation amongst motorists for being expensive and so the abolition of tolls was welcome news for drivers. Free tolls were rolled out progressively and in January 2020, the barriers were deactivated on the section between Alicante and Tarragona, marking a turning point after 40 years of having to pay.

Now read: British holidaymakers in hellish queues at Alicante Airport due to staff shortages

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Image: DGT

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