Pedestrians ease traffic during Iceland’s total eclipse

Traffic in the capital area moved smoothly on Wednesday despite road closures in several places for the total eclipse that passed over Iceland, mbl.is reports.

Unnar Már Ástþórsson, chief superintendent at the police station on Hverfisgata, said the relatively light traffic was partly because many people walked to designated gathering areas to watch the natural phenomenon.

Police had closed roads in various parts of the capital area, but the pressure on staffed roadblocks eased considerably as people chose to walk to the viewing areas.

“I have not heard anything other than that traffic went very well,” Ástþórsson told mbl.is. “We began noticing late yesterday that traffic simply dropped, and people going to see this great natural phenomenon came more or less walking into our areas.”

He said police had received no complaints and that, as far as he knew, everything had gone very well.