2024 already holds the record as the year with the worst traffic jams on Flemish motorways says Peter Bruyninckx, spokesman of the Flemish Traffic Centre. During the past 11 months, the monthly record was broken nine times. Last November witnessed the severest congestion since counting began in 2010. The previous traffic jam record dates from 2023.
2024 broke the 2023 record following congestion records in February, March, April, May, July, August, September, October and November. On an average working day in November, 206 kilometres of traffic jam stood on Flemish roads. It’s another record. The previous record for a monthly figure dated from earlier in the year: May 2024. November saw a 6 per cent increase on May’s figure.
Bruyninckx points to a combination of factors to explain the unprecedented congestion seen in November. Even with slightly less traffic than immediately before the pandemic, the Flemish road network remains saturated, especially around Brussels and Antwerp.
Additional factors
There are more reasons why even longer traffic jams were witnessed last month. In November, for instance, there was the bad weather and resulting difficult driving conditions, but an awful lot of incidents or accidents were also reported.
On average the Flemish Traffic Centre counted 27 'nuisance accidents', accidents causing major disruption to the flow of traffic last month. That too is a record. On Wednesday evening 13 November, for example, there were 2 multiple pile-ups on the E19 motorway towards Breda (The Netherlands).
Works, such as the renovation of the Leonard Tunnel on the Brussels ring road, and damage to the road surface, for example due to a large pothole as in Deurne (Antwerp) on 22 November, also had an impact on the severity of the congestion.