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Traffic jam on the A59 in Duisburg (symbolic image)
Photo: Stefan Arend / FUNKE Foto Services / IMAGO
Every year, the Christmas holidays make the streets full, and this one is no exception. The ADAC expects heavy traffic, which could test the patience of some even before the festivities. But – the good news – with good planning, longer traffic jams can be avoided, according to the traffic club.
In the middle of the week, some federal states have already started the Christmas holidays, and all the rest will do so by this Friday at the latest. That's when many people leave for their families, according to the ADAC, go on a skiing holiday or to the city centres for last-minute Christmas presents. As a result, most traffic jams are likely to occur on Friday afternoon, and the ADAC still expects many traffic jams on Saturday morning.
Among the most important traffic jams during the Christmas holidays, the car club counts the metropolitan areas of Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich, the A4 Kirchheimer Dreieck via Erfurt and Dresden and the A61 Mönchengladbach, Koblenz and Ludwigshafen.
For Germany, stormy weather and a lot of rain are to be expected in the coming days. Travellers should be prepared for this and adapt their driving behaviour, for example by slowing down and overtaking trucks only carefully.
On Christmas Eve (Sunday) and Monday, Christmas Day, it will be quiet on the highways overall. When the Christmas hustle and bustle is over on 26 December, Boxing Day, the return traffic – and holiday traffic – also begins. However, the ADAC assumes that a higher volume of traffic is not to be expected again until 27 December.
Meanwhile, traffic jams are also to be expected in neighbouring countries. The traffic jams on the Tauern and Brenner motorways in Austria are likely to become even longer this year, according to the ADAC. There is construction and renovation work on both routes, which will not be interrupted even in the cold season.
Ani