Never before so much freight traffic on Flemish highways as in 2021
There is more freight traffic than ever before on the Flemish highways, reports the Flemish Traffic center in its annual report.
Although traffic did not reach the levels of pre-pandemic years, car and especially truck traffic did increase, especially from March onwards and especially in the evenings.
While in 2019 the average morning rush hour had 155 km of congestion and that in the evening 119 km, in 2021 the two rush hours were clearly matched: 86 km of morning congestion and 88 km of evening congestion. "If we look at the congestion severity - that is the product of the congestion length and the congestion duration - the figures were higher both in the morning and in the evening than in 2020. Remarkably, morning traffic jams became 27 percent heavier, and evening traffic jams as much as 61 percent heavier. Viewed over the longer term, compared to 2012, we see a 23 percent decrease for the morning rush hour and a sharp 39 percent increase for the evening rush hour," it reads.
October accounted for nine of the ten days with the longest traffic jams. Many corona measures eased in the fall. The fact that there were heavy evening rush hours with many accidents even caused traffic congestion in September and October to peak above pre-pandemic levels.
The impact of corona on traffic varied depending on the highway and the time of day. On the Antwerp inner ring road R1 for example, the morning and evening rush hours became much heavier in 2021. During the corona years, the location where traffic jams were held up the longest on the Antwerp freeways shifted from Antwerp East to the Kennedy tunnel, partly due to disruption at the neighbouring Oosterweelwerf. In Ghent, congestion hours on the E17 between Kortrijk and Antwerp increased due to renovation work on the Gentbrugge viaduct.
The most congested spots were on freeways where traffic had to slow down for construction sites, although traditionally the busiest road segment remained the zone between Berchem and Antwerp-East on the R1: good for 125,000 cars and trucks per working day. This is still 14,000 less than before corona.
The most congested freeway zones were the southern part of the Antwerp Ring R1, the northern part of the Brussels Ring R0 and the E313 between Antwerp and Wommelgem.
© BELGA PHOTO - Illustration picture shows traffic jam