Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Instead of going on vacation by plane, many people preferred to sit in the car at the start of the holiday and were not afraid of kilometers of traffic jams on the streets. According to the ADAC, this is reflected in the traffic reports. Because the number of traffic jams on the first two weekends of the current summer vacation has increased compared to the start of vacation in recent years.
In total, the ADAC in Baden-Württemberg counted 1820 traffic jam reports and sheet metal snakes with a total length of 4057 kilometers on the first two holiday weekends. “That is more frequent and longer than in 2019, before the start of the corona pandemic,” said Holger Bach, the head of the traffic and environment department at ADAC Württemberg.
“This year, many people have replaced the plane trip with a vacation by car, which was noticeable on the streets at the beginning of the vacation,” said Bach, explaining the new traffic congestion. While his club counted 1148 traffic jams in 2020, there were 1443 reports in the previous year. The total of the traffic jam lengths also decreased significantly from 4104 kilometers in 2019 due to corona to 2364 kilometers last year.
Especially on the first holiday weekend (July 30th – August 1st), patience was required: “Here, the trend towards car vacations caused 32 percent more traffic jams than in the comparable period in 2019 before the pandemic,” said Bach. The less-coveted prize as the most crowded day at the beginning of the holiday in Baden-Württemberg therefore also received the 30th of July: On the first Friday after the end of the school year, it jammed 433 times over a total length of 990 kilometers. And motorists had to spend a lot of time a week later: On August 6th, the cars were parked bumper to bumper on the A8 between Esslingen and the Leonberg triangle for a length of 21 kilometers.
“The risk of traffic jams during the holiday season is particularly great on Fridays,” said Bach. In the afternoon the rush hour was on the way and numerous vacationers got into the car. The highways 5, 81 and 8 were among the particularly heavily used congestion routes.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210811-99-798595 / 2
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