The times emptier highways are long gone. In fact, this summer it got too clear more traffic jams than in the pre-Corona period.
While the traffic balance on German roads fell sharply in the first pandemic year of 2020, this trend was reversed in the second corona year. After evaluating traffic data for the travel months of July and August, the traffic club registered ADAC even more and longer traffic jams than in the pre-Corona year 2019. And unlike in 2020, trips abroad were significantly more frequent this summer.
Traffic balance 2020 vs 2021
In July and August 2021, over 169.000 traffic jams were counted on German roads, which corresponds to an increase of almost 25 percent compared to 2019, where around 136.000 traffic jams were registered. The length of the traffic jams has also increased by a good 10 percent from 221.000 to 244.000 kilometers. For comparison: in 2020 there were around 114.000 traffic jams and 167.000 kilometers of traffic jams.
Last year almost 31 percent of all trips led to a destination within Germany, but this summer the proportion of home vacations fell to a good 26 percent. As in 2019, the second most frequent destination was Italy, where 18,3 percent of car trips went. The biggest climber was Turkey, with 15,7 percent of all car trips. In 2020 the share was 8,2 percent and in 2019 it was 9,8 percent. It is followed by Croatia (14,1%), Austria (7,7%) and France (3,4%). As in previous years, camping holidays and houseboat holidays also recorded significant growth rates in 2021.
