Effect of Soccer Games on Traffic, Study Case: Madrid

Special event, including sporting events, concerts, fairs and festivals, can generate large volumes of traffic such that congestion and associated problems occur. Quantifying and understanding the traffic characteristics of sport events would be useful in predicting how such events will affect traffic flow. In this communication we propose a quantitative methodology in order to gauge the effects of mayor events on the traffic of a city. In particular we apply the methodology to the city of Madrid and the games of two of the main soccer teams of the city for three different competitions. Furthermore it has been found that the intensity of the effect of the games decay as an inverse power law of the distance to the stadium.