The traffic along the Ring Road (Highway 1) increased by 17% in September compared to the same month of 2015. This heaviest traffic along the Ring Road on record in September reports the Icelandic Road and Coastal Authority (IRCA – link in Icelandic)
The traffic has increased by 13% along the Ring Road in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period of 2015.
IRCA measures traffic along the ring road at 16 key locations around the island. IRCA projects that traffic in 2016 will increase by 12% over 2015, which was by far the heaviest since IRCA began recording the traffic at these locations in 2005.
The greatest increase in traffic was 42% in East Iceland, which nevertheless remains Iceland’s least travelled area.
You can follow road conditions around Iceland live via IRCA's web cams.
This increasing traffic is directly related to the boom in Iceland's tourism with the majority of visitors hitting the road heading to destinations around the island.
Iceland’s government has been heavily criticized for not supplying increased funds for maintaining gravel roads around the country. In many areas they cannot support the extra traffic that comes with increased tourism.
Read more: Travellers in a compact car get stuck on mountain route 66 only suitable for trucks
Read more: The dangers of Iceland's narrow roads: A terrifying video of a car crash caught on a dashboard cam
Driving in Iceland
One of the biggest dangers of driving in Iceland is the narrow road network of the country. The majority of national highways are two-lane roads, one lane in each direction, and many of them are both curvy and pass through hilly landscape. Driver always have to be extra cautions when a road’s surface changes from being asphalt to gravel, which is something that can be expected all over the island. Adding snow and ice in the mix during the winter can make driving conditions extremely difficult.
The traffic along the Ring Road (Highway 1) increased by 17% in September compared to the same month of 2015. This heaviest traffic along the Ring Road on record in September reports the Icelandic Road and Coastal Authority (IRCA – link in Icelandic)
The traffic has increased by 13% along the Ring Road in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period of 2015.
IRCA measures traffic along the ring road at 16 key locations around the island. IRCA projects that traffic in 2016 will increase by 12% over 2015, which was by far the heaviest since IRCA began recording the traffic at these locations in 2005.
The greatest increase in traffic was 42% in East Iceland, which nevertheless remains Iceland’s least travelled area.
You can follow road conditions around Iceland live via IRCA's web cams.
This increasing traffic is directly related to the boom in Iceland's tourism with the majority of visitors hitting the road heading to destinations around the island.
Iceland’s government has been heavily criticized for not supplying increased funds for maintaining gravel roads around the country. In many areas they cannot support the extra traffic that comes with increased tourism.
Read more: Travellers in a compact car get stuck on mountain route 66 only suitable for trucks
Read more: The dangers of Iceland's narrow roads: A terrifying video of a car crash caught on a dashboard cam
Driving in Iceland
One of the biggest dangers of driving in Iceland is the narrow road network of the country. The majority of national highways are two-lane roads, one lane in each direction, and many of them are both curvy and pass through hilly landscape. Driver always have to be extra cautions when a road’s surface changes from being asphalt to gravel, which is something that can be expected all over the island. Adding snow and ice in the mix during the winter can make driving conditions extremely difficult.
