Plans to open hard shoulder axed despite traffic concerns on the Costa del Sol

Manuel Cantos Garcia/Facebook

DELAYS EXPECTED: Summer jams are common on the A-7.

THE Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) has announced they will not be opening extra lanes this summer to reduce tailbacks on the A-7 motorway.

Last Sunday, a traffic jam stretched almost 30 kilometres along the coast as beachgoers returned home, and experts have warned that unless drivers plan their journeys better, such sights will be common until September.

The DGT has refused to open up the hard shoulder, as it has in the past, claiming that the measure prevents emergency vehicles from reaching accidents in time.

Mario Arnaldo, president of the European Automobile Association, has stated that there are few options available.

“Increasing the capacity of the road does not increase its safety,” he explained. “Only the information provided to motorists can be improved, so they can plan ahead meaning traffic can disperse more evenly,” he added.

Arnaldo criticised the government for their inability to control toll companies who are adding to the problem by raising prices during the summer.

“Malaga will die of success by congestion, tourist entrepreneurs must come up with imaginative solutions to mitigate the toll payment charges to their customers,” he said.

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