Traffic in Madrid decreased by 5.8% during the championship final and the subsequent national team's parade, according to an analysis by Geotab. Average speed increased by 14% during the match, but congestion was concentrated in areas such as Jerónimos and Goya.
The final of the football championship and the subsequent celebration of the national team altered Madrid's mobility patterns for 48 hours, although in a manner quite different from what one would expect from a large crowd event. According to an analysis by Geotab, based on data from its connected vehicles, the city did not collapse as is usually anticipated for such events, but absorbed much of the impact thanks to a significant change in usual travel patterns.
During the match, held on Sunday, July 19, the total volume of trips fell by 5.8% compared to the previous Sunday, and the average speed of circulation dropped by 6%, to 44.3 kilometres per hour. However, the most revealing figure comes when isolating the hours of the match itself, between 21:00 and 23:00, when trips were reduced by between 32% and 35%, while the average speed increased by 14%, reflecting much clearer streets outside the areas where fans gathered.
The behaviour on Monday, July 20, with the national team's parade moving through the city centre, is equally counterintuitive. Despite traffic cuts on several main routes, the average speed of circulation across Madrid was between 3% and 9% higher than on a normal Monday during the peak hours of the parade, between 12:00 and 18:00. Iván Lequerica, Vice President for EMEA at Geotab, explains that when usual travel patterns change, the city can better absorb much of the demand, although certain areas bear very high pressure.
This contrast between overall fluidity and localized tension is very clear when analysing the corridors directly affected by the official route. The Jerónimos area, around Paseo del Prado and Plaza de Cibeles, was the hardest hit in the entire analysis, with an average speed 20% lower than the reference and 19.5% fewer trips, a direct reflection of the traffic cuts and the concentration of the public. In Goya, the main eastern access to the route, speed fell by 10.8% despite a 6.5% increase in trip volume, indicating that many drivers continued to use that corridor despite the restrictions. In contrast, Cuatro Caminos recorded the opposite pattern, with speeds 3.9% higher and a 10.1% decrease in trips, in line with the overall traffic drop in the rest of the city.
The effect began to reverse from 19:00, when the dispersal of attendees caused a speed reduction of between 3.5% and 6.2% compared to the reference Monday, and worsened overnight, with the worst traffic levels of the entire analysis recorded between 00:00 and 03:00, when the average speed at one in the morning fell by 22.6% compared to a usual Monday.
This concentrated congestion also had a measurable energy cost among connected internal combustion vehicles, with an average consumption that rose to 5.22 litres per 100 kilometres, 59% more than on a normal Monday, and total CO2 emissions that increased by 49%, to 18.86 tonnes. For fleet operators and urban delivery services, this episode confirms a pattern already observed in other major events: congestion does not disappear during a mass celebration, it simply shifts and concentrates in a few very specific corridors, while the rest of the city can flow more smoothly than usual.
You may also like
