Tenerife's Traffic Crisis Deepens

Tenerife has a serious road problem, and it's a reality the island needs to face. More and more cars are on the roads, but the island's road system isn't keeping up in many areas. Traffic jams are a common issue, getting much worse around Christmas, especially in towns with big shopping areas like Santa Cruz, La Laguna, Adeje, and Arona.

On Monday, December 22nd, the south of the island came to a standstill for several hours. Too many cars on the TF-1, along with several accidents, brought traffic to a halt. Pictures shared on X (formerly Twitter) showed the southern highway on Google Maps glowing red from Fañabé to the Siam Mall exit, where multiple crashes had happened.

The issue wasn't just on one of Tenerife's main roads. Other roads around the TF-1 were also heavily congested. Drivers tried to use the TF-655 and TF-481, which are exit and access roads to the southern highway, as alternative routes. This only caused congestion on those smaller roads too.

Another common traffic hotspot in the south is near the Port of Los Cristianos. Here, too, long queues stretched for miles and lasted hours. This is because the same roundabout that leads to the port also serves as an entrance to the Playa de Las Américas shopping district.

The user @TFSURTenerife collected messages from drivers on the SocialDrive app, showing how frustrated many were after being stuck for over an hour on southern Tenerife's roads. Drivers' comments on the app included: "Calling it a collapse is an understatement; nothing is moving, neither on nor off the highway," "How sad what they have turned our land into," and "In my 20 years of having a license, I don't remember anything like today... it's absolute madness."

This kind of traffic is becoming an everyday occurrence on both the TF-1 and TF-5, especially during rush hour. This is when people are commuting to school, university, or work, and need to travel by car.