Road traffic this weekend will be exceptionally congested, with the traditional July-August holiday travel creating traffic jams almost impossible to avoid, Touring and the VAB warn. In Belgium, traffic will be dense on the E40 Brussels-Ostend and the E17 Antwerp-Ghent on Friday evening and Saturday for Belgians leaving on holiday and on Sunday evening for returning vacationers, according to forecasts issued by the VAB, which provides road breakdown rescue services for motorists.
In France, road travel will be tough for people leaving on vacation whereas returning holidaymakers should not encounter any particular difficulties. Saturday will be an exceptionally complicated day, according to the French national road-travel information centre, Bison Futé. Traffic jams are expected on the A7 in the Rhone Valley from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m., on the A71 around Clermont-Ferrand between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., on the A9 along the Mediterranean from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on the A10 around Bordeaux from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday will be ideal for returning home from the holidays despite some difficulties for departures in the east of France.
In Germany, inhabitants of Bade-Wurtemberg and Bavaria, two of the three most densely populated regions, begin their summer vacation this weekend. Traffic will therefore be laboriously slow, and roads have been coded “red” from Friday at noon to Sunday, when the code will switch to orange, according to Touring, an association that seeks to foster safe, comfortable road travel.
In Austria, the VAB expects particularly dense traffic on Saturday at border crossings with Germany (B179 Fernpassstrasse), on the A10 between Salzburg-Villach and Flachau, and on the A11, travelling in the direction of Slovenia.
Many vacationers will pass through Switzerland bound for Italy this weekend. Traffic jams will often occur very early in the morning and the waiting time could be more than two hours, according to the VAB forecast.
The Brussels Times
