Thursday is Ascension Day.
Traditionally, more people choose to take Friday off to travel away.
The day with the most delays
It also confirms traffic figures for the month of May from 2021-2023, which show that the Wednesday before Christ’s Ascension is the May day with the most traffic delays.
The exception was last year, when May 17 fell on this Wednesday. This year, however, 17 May falls in connection with the Pentecost exodus.
– Christ’s ascension is set to be the big May departure weekend this year, and queues must be expected from the big cities, especially Oslo, says section leader at the Road Traffic Center east of Oslo, Christian Prydz, in a press release.
Lines with queues
The delays are by far the greatest from Oslo and south, E6 towards Sweden and E18 towards Southern Norway.
Here, in 2021 and 2022, there was a doubling in delays, compared to normal rush hour traffic.
– Elsewhere in the country, there is also a little extra traffic, and especially from the bigger cities. But the delays are nowhere near as big as in Oslo, with Bergen being a good second, says Prydz.
Also in connection with the journey home on Sunday, delays can be expected on some routes:
– The traffic is spread out more on the journey home on Sunday, also because rush hour traffic is avoided as an additional factor, but especially the E18 through Telemark has had a lot of delay at 13-18, with a peak around 15, and near Drammen around 16-20, says Prydz.
Plan your trip
Prydz recommends planning your trip at www.vegvesen.no/trafikk before departure, or downloading the “Vegvesen trafikk” app. There you can get traffic reports for the section you will be driving, and receive alerts about roadworks and other incidents. You can also follow queues and the traffic image on the web cameras in the app.
– Let someone other than the driver check for updates, or stop in a suitable place so that you avoid dangerous situations. Keep your eyes on the road and drive carefully, he emphasizes.
– Consider other times
The traffic figures from 2021 and 2022 show that the delays on the Wednesday before Christ’s ascension have started from around 2pm, peaked between 3-5pm, and have lasted until around 8pm on the most popular routes.
– Consider whether you can drive earlier or later in the day. If you drive between 14 and 18, you must be prepared for delays, especially if you are driving towards Sweden or towards the South from Oslo on this day, says Prydz.
This is how traffic from Oslo was distributed on the Wednesday before Christ’s Ascension in 2022, for cars that drove longer than 1.5 hours (equivalent to approx. 100 km):
From Oslo: 37 per cent drove towards Sweden, 32 per cent towards Sørlandet, 16 per cent towards Hallingdal/Valdres, 8 per cent towards Telemark/Numedal and 7 per cent towards Østerdalen/Gudbrandsdalen.
Drive carefully – both in a car and on a motorbike
– We see that speed increases when spring arrives and the roads are free of snow and ice, and that more people take risks with dangerous overtaking. We would encourage people to plan well, slow down and not take unnecessary chances in traffic both on departure days and on other days, says Prydz.
Prydz also has a recommendation for the many MC drivers who are now back on the roads:
– Now in May, many people have taken out their motorbike again after it has been sitting idle in the garage all winter. Most have not ridden a bike since last autumn, and are perhaps a bit rusty. In addition, there is still a lot of gravel on the roads in several places in the country. I would encourage you to be particularly attentive, and to take it easy!
