Traffic, Driving conditions | Christ’s ascension: There will be traffic jams here

(Nettavisen/HA): Thursday is Ascension Day and traditionally many people choose to take Friday off to travel away.

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.

– Christ’s Ascension is set to be the big May departure weekend this year, and queues from the big cities must be expected.

This is what section manager at the Vegtrafikksentralen east in Oslo, Christian Prydz, says in a press release.

The delays are by far the greatest from Oslo and southwards, on the E6 towards Sweden and the E18 towards Southern Norway. Here, in 2021 and 2022, there was a doubling in delays, compared to normal rush hour traffic.

– Especially from the biggest cities

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration also sees minor delays beyond normal rush hour traffic from several large cities.

– 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.

– Consider whether you can leave earlier

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 2pm and 6pm, you must be prepared for delays, especially if you are driving towards Sweden or towards the South from Oslo on this day, says Prydz in the press release.

He also encourages people to drive carefully, plan well and slow down.

– We see that the 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.

It looks like there will be decent driving conditions on Hedmarken on Wednesday afternoon and evening. It will be mostly cloudy with temperatures of around 15 plus degrees.

This is what the traffic on Hedmarken looks like right now: