Up to 124,295 vehicles circulate in one day through the Padre Anchieta area (La Laguna), on the Northern highway, and 97,305 do so near Los Cristianos (Arona), on the TF-1, according to the meters installed by the council. These are the two points where the largest volume of cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks that travel through the two main arteries of Tenerife is concentrated, an island that has one of the highest rates of vehicles per inhabitant and square kilometer in all of Europe. .
Three factors have a decisive influence on this reality that thousands of motorists suffer every day: the dispersion of the Island, with three large population centers (metropolitan area, North and South), the lack of foresight for decades by the rulers when promoting the necessary road infrastructures and a deep-rooted culture of the private vehicle. This last factor puts on the table an objective pursued, without much success, for years: that public transport is not used exclusively by those who do not have a car.
To this we must add a fleet of more than 800,000 vehicles on an island of 2,034 square kilometers (of which half are natural spaces) inhabited by one million people, which represents 821 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, well above from the Spanish average. Another significant fact is that 45% of the cars that make up the fleet of the Archipelago circulate in Tenerife.
The information provided by the stations deployed throughout the island of the Cabildo Highway Technical Service reflects an upturn in the average daily traffic intensity on the two highways, with density levels that are already comparable to those of the year prior to the pandemic. (2019).
Official data indicates that on Fridays, the day with the greatest number of cars in circulation, up to four meters of the Cabildo between Santa Cruz and La Laguna (Hospital de la Candelaria, Campus de Guajara, Padre Anchieta and Bomberos de La Laguna) register more than 115,000 cars in 24 hours on a stretch of mostly eight lanes (four going up and four going down). There are almost 40,000 more than on the TF-5 (with half the lanes) at the height of La Matanza or La Orotava. The highest peak is located in the Padre Anchieta area, with 124,295 units in 24 hours.
But in the South, the situation is no better. Of the 97,305 cars that are counted on average every Friday on the TF-1 in the municipality of Arona (where there are only two lanes heading south and another two in the direction of Santa Cruz), the Cabildo stations reveal that the queues win every more and more kilometers, extending to several municipalities. For example, at the Fañabé junction (Adeje), where more than 80,000 vehicles are exceeded in a day or at the airport (Granadilla de Abona), where that number is already close.
It so happens that three out of every four journeys in the southern area of the island, Tenerife’s main tourist attraction, are made by their own car, which aggravates traffic jams and generates more pollution. It is estimated that 5% of the general volume of traffic corresponds to heavy vehicles.
busiest hours
Regarding timetables, there are some differences between the North and the South. While the main flow of the TF-5 (between the Hospital de la Candelaria and Bomberos de La Laguna) practically remains uniform between eight in the morning and seven in the evening, in the case of the greatest concentration of moving vehicles of the TF-1, the worst option is to drive from three in the afternoon to six, the hourly section of long caravans between Playa de Las Américas and Guaza.
The annual report of the Technical Road and Landscape Service of the Cabildo underlines that the high density of traffic directly influences the quality of circulation, since it is more difficult for drivers to maintain the speed they want and they are forced to a greater number of manoeuvres, including lane changes, acceleration, braking, with constant stops and starts, which also affects safety.
The General Directorate of Traffic warns about the consequences of stress behind the wheel, since it alters the ability to drive safely and, therefore, triggers the risk of accidents, as recalled by its information campaigns. In addition, the kilometric queues are a source of contamination as the emissions of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere multiply.
The Cabildo stations that measure the average daily traffic intensity are used, above all, for the planning of roads: from their classification, calculation of the accident rate and improvement and conservation programs, to the performance of economic studies, determination of signs and lighting trends and projects.
