According to information posted on the website of the Road Administration / Vegagerðin, traffic on the Suðurstrandarvegur road (leading towards the volcano) has increased by 500 percent since the eruption began.
One month ago, when the eruption in Geldingadalur began, traffic on the road increased sharply. Such a large increase in the number of cars has not yet been seen in the area, and this can be attributed to the huge interest in the eruption.
The busiest traffic in Reykjanesbraut and Grindarvíkurvegur was on March 30, when 17,500 cars passed Reykjanesbraut and 8,000 Grindavíkurvegur.
In Suðurstrandarvegur, the highest number of vehicles was on April 2, when the meter counted around 4,300 cars.
On the website of the Road Administration it was written that “data on traffic from previous years in the places in question allow Vegagerðin to estimate what would have been” normal “traffic in the same period had there been no eruption, and it turns out that during the period in question, traffic may have increased by 21% from Reykjanesbraut, 73% from Grindarvíkurvegur and 484% from Suðurstrandavegur. “
“It has also estimated how traffic is distributed on average during the day and found that some car traffic is usually around the clock, but it can be said that it starts rising from noon and peaks between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.: 00 and from 22:00 to 24:00. “
Source: Yle