With the arrival of the long-awaited summer holidays, many families choose the car as a means of transportation to leave their homes in search of a destination in which to disconnect from the daily routine. However, this increase in travel during the months of July and August makes Spanish roads suffer from one of their most common problems: traffic jams. Despite the fact that these crowds of vehicles usually last a few minutes, they are exasperating for anyone. In case you’ve ever wondered, below we will tell you what the biggest traffic jams in history have been.
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It should be noted that in Spain during the winter of 2018 there was a large traffic jam on the AP-6 towards Madrid due to a heavy snowstorm that kept hundreds of people detained for several hours. This traffic jam has been one of the largest that our country has experienced, but it is not the largest in the world.
New York State Thruway
The music festival Woodstock in 1969 sparked one of the biggest traffic jams lived United States throughout its history. The festival brought together half a million people in Bethel, a town located in upstate New York, so that too many cars were forced to circulate on the same track and therefore there was a retention that was maintained for a week. The traffic jam was so unbearable that many of the drivers decided to abandon their car and go on foot.
France
The road that connects Lyon with Paris registered in 1980 one of the most important roadblocks in history, since the length of the traffic jam was no less than 160 kilometers. The reason was the return of thousands of people from their vacations.
Berlin
In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, relations between one side of the city and the other were resumed. Many people took advantage of the first Easter weekend to visit the other side, resulting in a total of 18 million trips per day. This, together with the controls at the border, led to traffic jams of more than 50 kilometers in length.
The 100 Mile Traffic Jam
When in 2005 the Hurricane Rita was about to reach Texas , a total of two million people had to be evacuated, so to leave the country there was a retention 150 kilometers long that lasted 48 hours .
Highway Between Tibet & Beijng
In August 2010, China experienced the biggest traffic jam in its history. The 110-kilometer -long retention occurred on the G110 highway, the one responsible for connecting Tibet with the city of Beijing, and it took a total of 15 days to get out of the traffic jam. The traffic jam occurred because the return from vacation operation coincided with some works that were being carried out on a section of said track. Due to the magnitude of the hold, this is considered the biggest traffic jam in automotive history.
Chicago
In February 2011, there was a monumental traffic jam in Chicago due to weather conditions, as a large storm caused a half meter of snow to accumulate on the streets in just a few minutes. Drivers did not have time to react, so many vehicles were buried in the snow. The duration of the traffic jam was 12 hours.
Brazil
In São Paulo, traffic is growing at a rate of 7.5% per year, a whopping 1,000 new cars estimated bought in the city every day.
Brazil registered a traffic jam of 306 kilometers in length in November 2013 during a few holidays that spread through different roads that connected with the capital.
Conclusion
Many of us have suffered traffic jams. Some suffer them daily. Although, it is a problem that affects millions of people around the world. Everyone says that no one is going to solve this situation and there is no possible way to get rid of this mass traffic jam issue. Without getting more into it, let me tell you that a traffic jam doesn’t just affect those inside their vehicles but it also affects everyone who lives in the affected cities, as air pollution ends up worsening the quality of life in the medium term. That makes traffic jam even worse now. What do you think?
