The worldwide mobility restrictions caused by Corona have ensured smoother traffic in cities. However, the German capital benefits little from this.
Due to the corona pandemic, there were fewer traffic jams in 2020. The navigation data service provider Tomtom registered a decrease in traffic obstructions for 26 of the largest cities in Germany. The clearest minus compared to the previous year was in Frankfurt am Main, where the congestion level calculated by the company fell by 7 percent to 20 percent. The basis is anonymized GPS data from navigation users.
The new traffic jam capital in Germany is Berlin with a traffic jam level of 30 percent (minus 2 percent), last year's frontrunner Hamburg comes in second with 29 percent (minus 5 percent). The level indicates how much longer drivers need for an average journey than they would without a traffic jam. Wiesbaden ranks third with 26 percent.
Globally, the Moscow region is hardest hit by traffic jams. There the level of disability was 54 percent. Bogota, Mumbai and Manila follow with 53 percent each. Berlin ranks 58th worldwide. Tomtom has evaluated the traffic situation in 416 cities worldwide. In 387 of these, there was a significant decrease in time lost during rush hour in 2020, by an average of 28 percent. The load only increased in 13. However, the experts do not expect a permanent trend reversal. After the end of the corona pandemic, traffic jams are likely to increase again.