Last year, the volume of Estonian vehicle mileage rose from 11.6 billion kilometers in 2022 to 11.9 billon, which is 2.4 percent.

The majority of the mileage – 72.3 percent – was generated by passenger cars. This was followed by trucks (13.8 percent) and the the smallest share was motorcycles (2.5 percent).

Estonia's highways also saw an uptick and have constantly increased over the last few years.

In 2023, vehicles drove approximately 3.3 billion kilometers on the country's biggest roads, around 61,000 kilometers more. In 2016, the first year data was collected, the total was under 3 billion kilometers.

The highway with the largest mileage was the Tallinn-Tartu (832.8 million kilometers ), followed by the Tallinn-Narva (604.8 million kilometers), and the Tallinn-Pärnu-Ikla (578.4 million kilometers).

The Tallinn-Tartu highway saw the biggest rise – 18.4 million kilometers – and on the Tallinn ring road – by 17.6 million kilometers.

Reimo Tarkiainen, head of the agency's analytics and data unit, said the increase on the Tallinn-Tartu road is due to the construction of four-lane highways.

"For the Tallinn-Tartu highway, the increase in the number of passages is certainly influenced by the fact that there is now a 2+2 road from Tallinn to Mäo. The shorter route to Central Estonia, both in terms of time and distance, has caused people to change their routes," he said.

Extra lanes were also behind the rise on the Tallinn Ring Road.

"In the case of the Tallinn ring road, the same example can be given as for the Tallinn-Tartu highway, i.e. in recent years the Tallinn ring road has been almost entirely built as a 2+2 road, and the faster route choice is increasingly diverting people to such roads. The choice of alternative roads has decreased," said Tarkiainen.

Additionally, the official said the traffic on the Tallinn ring road is affected by the rapid increase of residential, development and commercial spaces being built along it.

The only main highway that saw a decrease was the Tallinn-Paldiski road, falling from 97.6 million kilometers in 2022 to 96.8 million kilometers, or by 800 thousand kilometers less.

Tarkiainen said traffic has been affected by road works and global crises.

"As the Paldiski highway is an important alternative to the Pärnu highway, the use of the highway in one year may be affected by road works in Tallinn, on the highway and on the railway in 2023 and the year before. In addition, the Paldiski highway has been an important transit corridor due to the location of the freight port, but the share of transit was significantly reduced due to the sanctions imposed on Russia, and the impact of covid," he said.

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