Munich (dpa) – traffic jam on the way to work, traffic jam on the way home: Even in the Corona year 2020, many commuters were not spared, although restrictions and home office caused significantly less traffic.
In the German traffic jam capital Munich, commuters lost an average of 65 hours over the year, according to an analysis published on Tuesday by the traffic data provider Inrix. However, that is almost a day less than in 2019, when the typical Munich commuter lost 87 hours. And the loss of time also decreased in other German cities.
The sharpest decline was in Frankfurt / Main and Düsseldorf, where commuters lost 23 hours less. Nationwide, people in Munich still suffer most from traffic jams. Berlin remains number two with 46 hours – at least 20 less than the year before. Nuremberg follows behind: Because the time lost there only decreased by 7 to 35 hours, the city jumps from sixth to third place among the traffic jam cities. Hamburg is fourth with 33 hours, ahead of Leipzig (31), Freiburg (30), Hanover (28), Düsseldorf and Bremen with 27 hours each and Stuttgart with 26.
The reason for the decrease in traffic jams is quickly found: The average daily mileage fell significantly – in the ten most polluted cities by values between 12 and 25 percent. “The coronavirus is changing the way, when, where and how we move,” says Bob Pishue, traffic analyst at Inrix. “Morning commuter flows to cities around the world decreased as people reduced their trips to offices, schools, shopping malls and other public places.”
Inrix determined the world’s highest time loss due to traffic jams in 2020 in the Romanian capital Bucharest with a time loss of 134 hours. It is followed by Bogota in Colombia with 133 hours ahead of New York and Moscow with 100 hours each. In comparison, German drivers get off lightly. However, some German cities moved up in the global traffic jam ranking – Munich, for example, from 47th to 20th.
Other companies and organizations also regularly examine the density of traffic jams in Germany – with different methods and sometimes with different results. The map specialist TomTom came to the conclusion that last year Berlin was hit hardest by traffic jams, ahead of Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. Munich only comes in seventh here. The ADAC in turn looks at the intensity of traffic jams on motorways, most of which are in North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. In these studies, too, the traffic jams clearly declined.
Experts view traffic jam rankings with mixed feelings. Justin Geistefeldt, Professor of Transportation at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, finds them basically “a bit problematic” because they do not sufficiently take into account the particularities of the individual cities. “The position in the ranking says little about the quality of traffic management or the availability of alternative means of transport,” he says. Nevertheless, the studies provided certain indications: “There is hardly a better data basis for assessing the traffic jam.”
For its survey, Inrix looks at typical commuter routes in the cities examined and calculates how much time drivers lose there due to traffic jams. The company sells traffic analysis and services for connected cars to administrations and companies. The bigger the traffic jam problem appears, the better its business prospects are.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210309-99-744037 / 3
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