There has never been so much traffic congestion on Belgian roads as during the last six months. This emerges from the most recent survey on the subject from Touring Mobilis, which the Mediahuis group newspapers are echoing in today’s editions (Thursday).
Touring Mobilis is, each day, analysing the length of traffic jams in Belgium. From the January to June period (inclusive), the “meter” stopped at 708 hours of congestion; that is those not caused by bad weather or accidents. This equates to the time equivalent of nearly an entire month. A year ago, this figure was 607 hours and 394 in 2012.
The cause of this phenomenon is the increase in the number of diversions that proportionately more traffic jams cause. “Moreover this is occurring when our road infrastructure is almost the same as it was forty years ago.” This was noted by Danny Smagghe, the spokesman from Touring.
The automobile organisation is suggesting that, from now on, several measures be implemented speedily. These include separating transit and local traffic, digital traffic management, particularly through the use of information signs above roads, recourse to peak traffic lanes, which would only be open at peak times, and rewards for drivers who avoid such traffic jams.
(Source: Belga)
