Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – During the corona pandemic, there were significantly fewer traffic jams in the south-west in 2020. The length of traffic jams fell by around half last year, as can be seen from the ADAC traffic jam balance for the south-west. Last year the ADAC counted traffic jams in Baden-Württemberg with a length of around 92,000 kilometers, after around 191,000 kilometers in 2019. The duration of the traffic jams has also been reduced by more than half to around 33,700 hours.
Accordingly, the lower number of cars on the roads in the south-west played a major role in this decline. According to an estimate by the Federal Highway Research Institute, around twelve percent fewer cars were on the road in 2020. The streets were particularly empty in spring, when the ADAC recorded a decrease in traffic jams by more than 90 percent. “At times you could see completely empty sections on the autobahn,” said Holger Bach from ADAC Württemberg.
The summer holidays caused a little more traffic jams than in 2019. During this time, around five percent more rows of cars formed on the roads than in the previous year. Towards the end of the year and with the renewed lockdown, the streets emptied again and the length of the traffic jam fell by around 75 percent in the period from November 2 to the end of the year compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, according to ADAC, December 1, 2020 was the most congested day of the year with 765 kilometers of traffic jams, as the onset of winter had caused numerous accidents and congested roads.
The most congested route in the country in 2020 was the Heidelberg-Karlsruhe section of Autobahn 5 with 275 kilometers of traffic jams per kilometer of the autobahn. This is followed by the Heilbronn-Mannheim sections of Autobahn 6 and the Stuttgart-Karlsruhe section of Autobahn 8.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210211-99-390977 / 2
–
