This weekend will be a bear on the motorways in Belgium, France and the Alps, with the summer's first “Black Saturday” hitting Lyon and the Rhone Valley regions
According to road assistance organization Touring, tomorrow marks the first so-called Black Saturday in the Lyon and Rhone Valley regions of France. This refers to the first day of the summer holiday period when traffic is at a standstill.
This bumper-to-bumper situation affects not only holiday-makers going to France but also driving through it to destinations in the Alps and Italy. They are always warning travellers for code red situations at traffic bottlenecks Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Skip Friday and Saturday, if you can
Road assistance organizations suggest that travellers hit the road between Sunday and Thursday, but if it is a must to leave on Friday or Saturday, Saturday late morning is the best time. VAB states that leaving early will put you in the worst afternoon and early evening traffic in the above-mentioned locations.
VAB’s studies suggest that, in terms of Saturday, leaving at 11.00 offers the shortest travel time. Sunday is a much better day to head out, confirms VAB.
While traffic in Belgium is always lighter in the summer months, it will not escape the holiday exodus this weekend. Making matters more extreme is the start of the bouwverlof, or construction holiday, in much of Flanders.
This is the period every summer when most construction companies shut down for +/- three weeks. All those builders heading out on holiday means heavy traffic this weekend.