There were significantly more traffic jams and stalled traffic on German motorways in 2023 than in the previous year. However, according to the ADAC traffic jam balance, the pre-Corona level from 2019 was not reached. The automobile club is expecting more traffic and more traffic jams this year, not least because of the many construction sites.
Overall, traffic on the motorways was delayed by 427,000 hours last year: that is a quarter more than in 2022, but still a sixth less than in 2019, as the ADAC announced. The busiest days of the week were Wednesday and Thursday. As in previous years, there were the least traffic jams on Mondays and weekends.
However, the busiest day of 2023 was a Friday: On September 29th, many drivers used the long weekend until German Unity Day on October 3rd for a short vacation, explained the traffic experts in Munich. There were almost as many traffic jams on the highways in May on the Friday before Pentecost weekend and on the Wednesday before Ascension Day.
According to ADAC information, traffic jam hours increased continuously until the summer, from 20,000 in January to 43,500 in July, August and September. From October onwards, the number of hours of traffic jams fell again. In total, the ADAC registered 691 traffic jams on the motorways that were at least 20 kilometers long last year. The largest occurred in January after the onset of winter on the A61 in front of the Nahetal triangle: it was a total of 56 kilometers long.
As in previous years, the federal state with the most traffic jams was North Rhine-Westphalia with almost 34 percent, followed by Bavaria with 15 percent and Baden-Württemberg with ten percent. Among the national motorways, the A3 was the leader in traffic jams, followed by the A8 and the A10, the Berliner Ring. According to ADAC, the hope that with the introduction of the Deutschlandticket in May 2023 commuters will increasingly switch from cars to buses and trains and that there will be fewer traffic jams in the morning and afternoon has not been fulfilled.