The problem of traffic jams exists, probably, in big cities of every country. And, even, there are records in this direction.

A traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway at the entrance to the Chinese capital was formed on August 14, 2010, due to road repairs in the city. On Monday, August 23, its length was 100 kilometers. At the same time, it was reported that the cars practically did not move. To keep the situation from getting worse, the government sent about 400 policemen to patrol the traffic jam. Thanks to their actions, this traffic jam has decreased to almost 65 km. However, soon the length of the traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway towards the capital of China increased sharply and increased by more than 2.5 times in three days. Its length reached 260 kilometers.

Tens of thousands of drivers stuck in traffic waited out the "natural disaster", while away the time playing cards or chess. Moreover, they were most annoyed by local residents who decided to earn extra money on someone else's misfortune: they sold water and instant noodles to motorists at repeatedly inflated prices.

The problem of traffic jams is very relevant today, almost all major cities and capitals face it. A lot of research is being carried out and measures are being introduced to prevent the formation of congestion on the roads.

IBM (IBM Commuter Pain Survey) decided to conduct its own study of transport problems on the roads. As a result, 8192 motorists from 20 cities located on 5 continents were interviewed.

As a result of the calculations, it was determined that 87% of the motorists surveyed got stuck in traffic jams, while the average waiting time was one hour.

When compiling it, 10 indicators were taken into account, the main of which were travel time, waiting time in traffic jams, and the price of fuel. Thus, the top five "leaders" included such cities: Beijing, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Moscow, New Delhi. According to the rating from 1 to 100 negative impact, they have such ratings - 99,99,97,84,81 respectively.

That. Moscow was ranked fourth among the world's largest metropolitan areas in terms of traffic congestion. It is worth noting that Moscow excelled in many respects - here the longest traffic jams, and the capital's drivers are among the most aggressive. Muscovites are more likely than others in the world to skip work due to traffic congestion.

Brussels was recognized as the busiest in Europe, while the Polish cities of Warsaw and Wroclaw took the second and third places. In them, more than 30% of all cars daily get into congestion.

The full top ten European cities with the busiest roads are as follows:

1. Brussels.
2. Warsaw.
3. Wroclaw.
4. London.
5. Edinburgh.
6. Dublin.
7. Belfast.
8. Marseille.
9. Paris.
10. Luxembourg.

The Spanish city of Zaragoza was named the most congestion-free city in Europe, where only 1.5% of all roads experience traffic difficulties. Also, Valencia and Zagreb were recognized as the least loaded cities.

USA: 160 km and two days

Panic can cause traffic jams. In September 2005, when Hurricane Rita was approaching the state of Texas, the residents of the state tried to urgently evacuate and chose the most popular highway for exit. In a matter of hours, a 160 km long traffic jam formed on the road. Drivers were forced to stand in a traffic jam for two days, people's lives were saved by a mass evacuation.

France: 170 km and one day

This collapse entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest cork of the 20th century. A kind of "country" traffic jam formed in February 1980. Five million French people simultaneously decided to return to Paris after a weekend in the Alps, as a result, a 170 km long traffic jam formed on the Paris-Lyon highway. The situation on the road was complicated by thick fog.

Russia: 200 km and three days

The traffic jam on the M10 Moscow-St. Petersburg highway on November 30, 2012 stretched for 200 km and three days. The reason for the traffic jam is a large number of drivers who drove onto the highway during snowfall and rain, as well as inconsistency between road services and the traffic police. At the same time, the authorities of Tver decided to close the entrance to the city for trucks during bad weather. Snowblower unable to break through to drifts, all bus services between Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tver were canceled for three days. To support drivers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations set up tents with hot samovars and stations along the cork, where psychologists-consultants worked.

Photo: Dmitry Norov / Global Look Press

China: 260 km and two weeks

The longest traffic jam lasted two weeks in China. The traffic jam formed on August 14, 2010 on the Beijing-Tibet highway due to road works. Millions of Chinese were stuck in a traffic jam 260 kilometers long, the speed of movement in the stream was less than 1 km per day. Local residents did not lose their heads and began to sell water and food to drivers at inflated prices, and after several cases of robbery, 400 police officers monitored the traffic jam to restore order.

Photo: Alexander F. Yuan / AP

Sao Paulo: 309 km and one day

Sao Paulo is the economic center of Brazil and the most populated city Southern Hemisphere, 20 million people live in it. In November 2013, a record was set here: for the first time in history, the total length of traffic jams during rush hour was 309 km. In the evening, many residents left the city for the coast to celebrate Republic Day. The record for this traffic jam has not been broken so far, and Sao Paulo has now acquired the largest number of helicopter taxis per capita. The previous record is also held by the Brazilian metropolis: in June 2009, a traffic jam 293 km long was recorded in Sao Paulo. On this day, 3 million residents tried to leave the city to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi.

Many inhabitants of this planet dream of moving to permanent place residence in Moscow, New York or Paris. However, few people truly realize the difficulties they will have to face living in such large cities. Kilometer traffic jams are one of the most acute problems in almost all modern megacities. After all, they take away three things from people at once: time, money and nerves.

What are the main causes of traffic congestion? How can you fight them? Where and when was the most big cork in the world? Our article will tell about it.

A Brief History of Urban Congestion

For starters, a little history. It's hard to believe, but the first traffic jams appeared at the end of the 17th century! True, these were carriage jams. At that time, horse-drawn carriages literally filled the passages of many European cities. And some streets simply could not cope with such a huge traffic of carriages.

The next "wave" of traffic jams swept the major cities of the world in late XIX century. It was associated with the emergence of such a type of transport as a tram. Both horses and people reacted to this miracle of technology inadequately and unpredictably. Therefore, in the first years of operation of the tram on city streets, the number of accidents and various accidents simply rolled over.

The first officially documented traffic jam in history occurred in 1969 in the United States. The reason for its formation was the Woodstock youth festival, which was popular at that time. Those wishing to get to this event got into a huge traffic jam 32 kilometers long.

Traffic jams and their causes

Excessive accumulation of vehicles (cars, buses, mopeds, etc.) on certain area The roads are called traffic congestion. In this case, the participants in the movement do not move at all, or move at a very low speed.

Since 2006 on the territory Russian Federation there is a special sign that warns drivers of an existing traffic jam on the road. It looks like this:

The main reason for the formation of traffic jams is (oddly enough) the human factor. The behavior of drivers in the style of "and I will slip through!" often leads to emergency and, as a result, to congestion. Other causes of traffic jams include:

• Incorrect work of traffic lights;
• The presence of unauthorized parking;
• Lack of special “pockets” at public transport stops;
• The presence of unregulated and busy intersections;
• Implementation of repair work on the track;
• A sharp deterioration in weather conditions (hail, heavy rain, heavy fog, etc.).

Is it possible to deal with traffic jams?

It is possible, and even necessary, to deal with traffic congestion. After all, this is one of the most dangerous "diseases" of a big city. There are several groups of methods of this struggle:

1. Engineering and technical (expansion of the carriageway, construction of new interchanges, improvement of the design of intersections).
2. Propaganda (promotion of cycling, social videos, etc.).
3. Modeling methods (use of modern computer technology in the process of organizing the work of public transport, planning urban routes, etc.).

Some countries and cities are struggling with traffic jams in quite interesting and unconventional ways.

For example, in Athens, motorists can only drive onto the streets of the city every other day. So, owners of vehicles whose license plate ends with an even number use their car strictly on even dates. AT odd days months is the opposite. Violators of this system face significant fines.

Some cities in Asia are trying to deal with traffic congestion with the help of quotas. That is, it will not be enough for you just to buy a car. It will also have to acquire a special document giving the right to use it. Such a system operates in Singapore, where the cost of one such quota is $8,000.

Rating of cities with the busiest car traffic

The INRIX company studies in detail the traffic of more than a thousand cities in 38 countries of the world. Recently, the company's specialists published the traditional annual ranking of the world's cities with the biggest traffic jams. This rating is based on the number of hours that drivers spend in traffic jams in a particular metropolis.

According to the results of 2016, the following cities were in the TOP-10:

1. Los Angeles (104 hours).
2. Moscow (91 hours).
3. New York (89 hours).
4. San Francisco (83 hours).
5. Bogotá (80 hours).
6. Sao Paulo (77 hours).
7. London (73 hours).
8. Magnitogorsk (71 hours).
9. Atlanta (70 hours).
10. Paris (65 hours).

Where and when was the largest traffic jam in the world recorded? More on this later in our article.

The biggest traffic jams in the world

One of the leaders in the number of traffic congestions on the planet is China. And this is not at all surprising, if we recall the population of this state. It was here that the largest traffic jam in the world formed in 2015.

Its cause was the mass celebration in Beijing of the country's national day. A traffic jam has formed on a 50-lane highway! The video of the congestion was posted on YouTube and has already spread around the world, shocking millions of Internet users. How long the biggest traffic jam in the world lasted is not exactly known.

China is also famous for the longest traffic jam in the history of transport. It began on August 14, 2010 and lasted 11 days. The unfortunate people had to live all this time in their "metal cans".

But the record for the longest traffic jam still belongs to the Brazilians. In 2008, on one of the main streets of São Paulo (the main metropolis of Brazil), a traffic jam formed, the total length of which reached 292 kilometers.

For residents of large cities, traffic congestion has become commonplace. Drivers can spend hours in traffic jams getting to their destination. Residents of capitals and even just big cities are already accustomed to doing even the most unusual, at first glance, things: drinking coffee, playing consoles or reading a newspaper. Some even try to paint or shave. This is because morning and evening hours of toffee is the norm for them.

There are cities where a simple traffic jam is the norm and there is nothing unusual in this event. The ranking of traffic jams by city is headed by Myrtle Beach (South Carolina). Here, the average driver spends up to 1.5 hours daily in a traffic jam. In second place is Sarasota (Florida). Here, the residence time is 10 minutes less than that of the leader. The Russian capital Moscow is also not in last place - 43 minutes in a traffic jam on the way to work and ninth place.

However, the biggest traffic jams are formed not because the transport interchange is bad in the city, but because everyone is in a hurry to work. there can be many, and they can be associated with many events.

Why are we standing?

The congestion of the central roads is most often associated with significant development automotive industry, an increase in the number of cars with enough poor quality roads, the absence of transport interchanges or ring, bypass roads. As a result, there are many hours of toffee. The situation can be exacerbated by accidents on the roads, repair work. Inexperienced drivers, of which there are a lot, also contribute. Also, incorrect operation of traffic lights, incorrectly adjusted, or the presence of a large number parked cars at the shoulders can contribute to the occurrence of congestion on a particular section of the road.

However, the longest traffic jams in the world arose for completely different reasons. For example, in America, where the weather conditions are difficult, quite often traffic jams at the exit from cities occur when an impending storm is announced, when all residents of one or another locality trying to leave their home. Massive traffic jams can occur on highways during large-scale events, concerts, sporting events. The very first traffic jam occurred in America during the Woodstock festival. Then, in 1969, a traffic jam 32 km long was recorded for the first time. For those times, this was an unprecedented scale. However, today it is an average toffee for an ordinary metropolis.

The biggest traffic jams

By various parameters: this is the length, measured in hundreds of kilometers, the number of cars in the stream, or the duration in hours.

The longest traffic jam had a length of 292 km. This record was set in Brazil, in Sao Paulo, in 2008.

The Chinese capital boasts yet another congestion. This is where the biggest bottleneck came in. The Beijing-Tibet highway stopped on August 14, 2010. The root causes were work on the track (repairs), several accidents and congestion. However, she continued to grow every day. Already in 9 days it was a 100-kilometer traffic jam. And by August 29, its length reached 260 km. Traffic was completely paralyzed, and enterprising merchants worked in the territory, who offered food and drinks for those who were in a jam.

Ways to deal with traffic congestion

Governments different countries trying to solve the problem of traffic jams in different ways. Some are building bypass, ring roads in order to relieve the central ones at least a little. Others set for a certain transport or at a certain time of the day. Others additionally increase the number of public transport during rush hour. Or they are building a metro in order to somehow reduce the flow of cars and unload the main route. But this only works if there is constant congestion. If the toffee is associated with some kind of traffic accident, a significant event or force majeure weather conditions, it is impossible to predict such a traffic jam, let alone prevent it. And you, as a driver, once on such a track, will just have to wait.

Many would like to travel back to ancient times, because it seems that life was much easier then. Fresh air, fewer people, and most importantly - no traffic jams! You will be surprised, but the first traffic jams appeared in antiquity. Where did it all start and where is the biggest traffic jam in the world?

History of traffic jams

The great and powerful Roman Empire was actively developing its political and trade relations, and roads would be very useful for this. Back in the 5th century, the Romans had special norms and procedures for building roads. In those times, it was the Roman Empire that had the most dense network of roads, which were divided depending on the means of transportation along them. So, there were separate roads for horses and chariots.

Rules first appeared under Emperor Caesar traffic, but, despite the excellent transport organization, the first traffic jams also appeared in Ancient Rome. After the collapse of the Empire, movement in its territories was no longer so stormy.

In the 17th century, with the growth of cities and a clear increase in the number of people, the phenomenon of traffic jams occurred again. Carriages, moving along the small European streets, often could not pass quietly. There were too many of them, which made it difficult to move around.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the construction of metros briefly helped to solve the problem of traffic congestion by taking over part of the passenger traffic. However, traffic jams soon returned and are still an unpleasant part of many city dwellers.

World records. The biggest traffic jam in the world

People living in big cities are bound to face traffic congestion. They represent a congestion of vehicles on a separate section of the road. At the same time, cars move much slower than expected, or do not move at all. The severity of traffic jams is measured by kilometers of car chains, or by the time spent in traffic jams.

The first largest traffic jam in the world was recorded in the USA, in the state of Washington. Then, in 1969, a huge number of people hurried to the Woodstock festival, forming a traffic jam 32 kilometers long.

For Brazilians, a traffic jam in Washington would seem like flowers. In 2008, the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo experienced the longest traffic jam in history. The length of the traffic jam was 292 kilometers.

The country that undoubtedly breaks all records in terms of the number of transport and where the largest traffic jam in the world is located is China. This traffic jam should rather be called the longest, as the drivers spent about ten days in it. In 2010, the Beijing-Tibet highway seemed to freeze. There were many reasons for this: accidents, traffic congestion, repair work on the road. Entrepreneurial merchants even organized mobile food shops.

Traffic jams

Road congestion by trucks and vehicles is on the rise in China's largest traffic jam in the world is irrefutable proof of this. Many countries have already begun to address these issues. For example, in Italy, the center of Rome is forbidden to visit by car to anyone except those living in the area.

Residents of Beijing cannot use a private car every day. For each driver, there is a separate day in the week when he can use the car, depending on the last digit of the number. On Monday, for example, only those whose numbers end in 1 and 5, etc., can ride.

Conclusion

Perhaps using a car is very convenient and much more pleasant than crowding with strangers on the subway. However, the fact that traffic jams create even more inconvenience and take much more time cannot be denied. And the biggest traffic jam in the world, which occurred in Brazil, and the longest in China, only confirm that the time has come for a person to change something.