City marks one year of Blanka tunnel

More than 30 million motor vehicles made use of Prague’s Blanka Tunnel complex in the first year since it opened, Prague’s Deputy Mayor Petr Dolínek said at a press conference on Friday. According to the deputy mayor, drivers “saved” a total of 290 years off their commute; the official said that Prague had not seen an increase in overall traffic and that daily the tunnel cut aboveground traffic in the area by some 13,000 vehicles. In all, the tunnel complex was used by more than 78,000 vehicles per day. Over the course of the year there were 64 traffic accidents in the tunnel; in only four cases were people injured. Not all municipalities are happy with developments, in particular Prague 6, which has seen much higher traffic leading to and from the tunnel.