ADAC balance sheet
Standstill, 22 times around the world – that’s how long Germany was stuck in a traffic jam in 2023
Familiar picture: traffic jam on the A8 near Sauerlach in Bavaria
© Peter Kneffel / DPA
Everyday life on German motorways in numbers: The ADAC’s traffic jam balance shows when and where there was the most traffic jams last year – and what drivers can do to avoid standstill.
Last year, nothing went on German motorways for the equivalent of almost 50 years. The duration of all traffic jams and stalled traffic was a total of 427,000 hours in 2024. This comes from the ADAC’s traffic jam balance, which the automobile club published this Tuesday.
This means that the duration of traffic jams is longer than that of the previous year (333,000 hours), but below that of the pre-Corona year 2019 (521,000 hours). According to the survey, the total length of all traffic jams last year was 877,000 kilometers, 22 times the circumference of the earth.
The ADAC considers traffic jams to be all events in which people drive slower than 20 kilometers per hour on motorways; In slow traffic, the speed is less than 40 kilometers per hour.
These sections of the highway had the most traffic jams
The ADAC describes a good dozen motorway sections as particularly congested, the top 5:
- A10 between Schönefelder Kreuz and the Spandau triangle
- A3 between Cologne and Oberhausen
- A3 between Passau/Suben border crossing and Passau
- A8 between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe
- A4 between Cologne and Aachen
Drivers were particularly plagued with traffic jams on the motorways in the Ruhr area.
Loved and cursed
The Autobahn Myth: Illustrated book explains the fascination of Germany’s longest structure
The most congested times
Traditionally, traffic on German motorways builds up, especially in summer, with the peak occurring in July. In the main travel month, traffic jams lasted 43,700 hours. June, August and September were at similar levels.
The five most congested days were in 2023:
- Friday, September 29th (Friday before the long weekend with German Unity Day) with a total of around 2,400 hours of traffic jams
- Friday, May 26th (Friday before Pentecost weekend) with around 2,300 hours of traffic jams
- Wednesday, May 17th (day before Ascension Day) with around 2,250 hours of traffic jams
- Friday, October 27th (Friday before Reformation Day and the autumn holidays in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) with around 2,250 hours of traffic jams
- Tuesday, December 5th, (onset of winter) with around 2250 hours of traffic jams
Over the year, Wednesday and Thursday were the busiest days of the week, with an average of 1,500 hours of traffic jams each. The traffic jam peak was regularly the rush hour between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.
The longest traffic jams in 2023
In total, the ADAC recorded 691 traffic jams that were at least 20 kilometers long last year, after 383 in the previous year. These were the front runners:
- A61, Mönchengladbach – Ludwigshafen between Miel and Nahetal triangle and in the opposite direction Ludwigshafen – Mönchengladbach between Nahetal triangle and Koblenz junction on Friday, January 20th, length 56 and 46 kilometers respectively
- A4, Görlitz – Dresden between Ludwigsdorf (border crossing) and Wilsdruff on Tuesday, May 30th, length 54 kilometers
- A24, Schwerin – Berliner Ring between Pritzwalk and Kremmen on Sunday, May 21st, length 48 kilometers
- A24, Schwerin – Berliner Ring between Meyenburg and Kremmen on Sunday, July 16th, length 46 kilometers
- A4, Chemnitz – Görlitz between Berbersdorf and Ludwigsdorf (border crossing) on Thursday, April 6th, length 44 kilometers
Causes of traffic jams
There were many reasons for traffic jams or stalled traffic. According to the ADAC, traffic jams are particularly common when lanes disappear or become narrower, often caused by construction sites. In 2023, there were between 800 and 1,500 construction sites on the German motorway network at the same time, around half of them in North Rhine-Westphalia alone, which was particularly plagued by traffic jams. Other causes of traffic jams were:
- Car traffic has increased by around four percent compared to the previous year.
- More commuters were on the move. “More and more employees will apparently work more in person and less in the home office in 2023,” suspects ADAC traffic data specialist Susanne Hessel. This is indicated by the increase in the morning and afternoonTraffic jam peaks on weekdays.
- Local peculiarities led to many traffic jams, for example the border controls a, Passau/Suben border crossing (A3).
- According to the ADAC, it was once again confirmed that the traffic jam situation becomes particularly bad when work and travel traffic come together.
The Germany ticket, which was launched on May 1, 2023, has had no positive effect on the development of traffic jams, according to the ADAC. Only four percent of the users of the service are new customers of local public transport – so there are few people switching. In addition, the ticket is not attractive for anyone who lives or works in rural, structurally weak regions. “The train is not an alternative for some car drivers.”
Germany ticket starts
For 49 euros per month across the country: you can really travel the distance with these regional trains
What to do when there is a traffic jam?
Leave or stay on the highway? It depends, says ADAC traffic expert Jürgen Berlitz. In smaller traffic jams during rush hour, it is rarely worth leaving the motorway, “because everyone knows the alternative routes, which is why they are overloaded.” It is different with full closures. “Get down quickly, otherwise I might be trapped there for several hours.” However, leaving the motorway to avoid a typical holiday traffic jam only makes sense if you have information about alternative routes.
Will things get better in 2024?
The experts at the automobile club say: no. The volume of traffic is expected to continue to rise this year – and with it the number and length of traffic jams. The dilapidated infrastructure is also likely to further slow down the flow of traffic. “More than 4,000 bridges will have to be replaced with new ones in a timely manner in the next few years,” says Berlitz. “If this doesn’t work, further, long-lasting full closures and traffic jams will result.”
How does the ADAC collect the information?
Last year, the automobile club processed around 278 billion data sets with speed and position information, for example from trucks or smartphone users, which was supplemented by construction site information. An up-to-date picture of the situation on German motorways is created every ten minutes.
Sources: ADACnews agencies AFP and DPA