Inrix’s annual congestion report has revealed which German cities had the worst traffic jams in 2024. On average, drivers in Germany lost three more hours to congestion in 2024 than in 2023.

Berlin named German traffic jam capital for 2024

According to the latest annual traffic congestion report by Inrix, a US-based mobility analytics company, in 2024 Berlin was the German city in which drivers lost the most time to congestion.

The average Berlin driver lost 58 hours in traffic in 2024, compared to 55 hours in 2023. Inrix defines “hours lost” as “the total number of hours lost in congestion during peak commute periods compared to off-peak conditions”. 

Berlin’s B96 NB road between Rathaus Tempelhof and Hallesches Ufer was the 10th-most congested route in Germany at peak times. Drivers lost an average of 18 hours waiting in line between Tempelhof and Kreuzberg, costing them an average of 631 euros.

Inrix bases these costs on the US Federal Highway Administration’s Revised Departmental Guidance on Valuation of Travel Time for Economic Analysis (2016), which was then adjusted for inflation. The report determines an hour in traffic in Germany to be worth 10,88 euros.

Wuppertal sees biggest annual congestion increase

After Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart rounded out the top five most congested cities in 2024. In Düsseldorf, drivers lost more hours to traffic jams than in Berlin (60 compared to 58), but the time lost cost them less money (533 euros compared to 631 euros).

In Munich, drivers lost 55 hours (costing 566 euros), in Cologne 56 hours (costing 544 euros) and in Stuttgart 58 hours (costing 577 euros). But it was the A3 NB road in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, from Stockweg to the A40, which was named the most congested corridor in the country.

2024 brought big increases in traffic congestion in Germany. “Traffic congestion increased more in German cities than in cities in the USA and the UK,” the Inrix report pointed out.

It was the German city of Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia that saw the biggest change. While Wuppertal was only the 10th most congested German city, the number of hours drivers lost to traffic in 2023 compared to 2024 increased by 34 percent, from 32 hours to 43 hours.

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