Structural traffic jams, independent of road incidents and weather conditions, rose in 2015 compared to last year, points out Touring Mobilis automobile club on Tuesday. Cumulative congestion of up to 100 km or more and lasting over 1,200 hours was registered on the Belgian road network in 2015, according to the organisation.
On seven occasions and for a total of almost six hours, cumulative traffic jams were spread over 400 km last year, reckoned Touring. The record day was Saturday, January 24th, when the worst congestion ever was registered on Belgian highways: 716km of jams caused by snow and ice. The four longest traffic jams in were due to adverse weather conditions.
Touring Mobilis reveals a new phenomenon, as three days of railroad strikes appear on the “Top 15” list of the longest traffic jams. “We used to register far quieter morning peak hours during rail strikes, and that is not the case anymore. Maybe people are tired of having to take a day off work every time, so that now they choose to drive to work,” notes Touring Mobilis.
The organisation analyses data from 750,000 vehicles transmitting their position every minute. They can work out that traffic is slow as soon as highway speeds are under 50 km/h.
(Source: Belga)
