Residents in the Soller Valley say that traffic saturation since the Soller Tunnel toll was removed is a fact and that it is not merely a "perception". They are suggesting that the increase is "alarming". Local police confirm that there is more traffic, and town halls (Soller and Fornalutx) are looking to the Council of Majorca roads department to apply control measures at weekends. An example of the need for such measures is the parking of cars on the Fornalutx road. This is said to be contributing to traffic problems.
The Council of Majorca, however, doesn't have up-to-date figures on traffic. The index of average daily traffic intensity for all main roads in Majorca is made public in June and it relates to the previous year. Given this, there are unlikely to be hard and fast data for traffic going through the tunnel until June 2019. The Council will therefore be unable to provide accurate traffic information related to the toll's removal until then.
In January, just after the toll was scrapped, the roads department nevertheless offered some data. There had only been a 5.5% increase compared with January 2017 - up to around 8,000 vehicles a day.
One of the criticisms made of the Council's decision to make the tunnel free was that it failed to take account of the potential impact of increased traffic.