Autor/ka:
Marcin Maszewski

Traffic Jams are Back on the Roads

Traffic Jams are Back on the Roads

Is the return of traffic jams on the roads good news?
Yes.
You may remember that returning to the city after a weekend often meant being stuck in traffic on Sunday evening. But this past weekend showed that we're returning to normality, even if we define it in a peculiar way. Here's how the momentary traffic flow looked on Warsaw's entry roads on Sunday, May 10th at 20:36:

traffic intensity

Have we reached last year's levels yet? Not quite – but I'll show through several examples how close we are to reaching the traffic intensity levels of 2019 and what the trend looks like.
From the charts discussed below, we can draw the following conclusions about changes in traffic intensity between major Polish cities:

  • Restrictions caused significant drops in traffic intensity. The decreases ranged from 44% to 52%.
  • Traffic intensity has been steadily increasing since Easter.
  • In the last measurement week, traffic intensity reached between 74% and 89% of 2019 levels.
  • When comparing data from main national roads in Poland with all national roads, we can say that the decreases on main roads were the smallest, except for sections near border crossings.

Analysis of Traffic from Six Measurement Stations

For the analysis, I selected data from six measurement stations located on Poland's main national roads.
The data comes from the periods March 1 - May 11, 2020, and March 1 - May 13, 2019. At the same time, let's remember that:

  • weekdays don't align with calendar dates; in 2019 – March 1st fell on Friday, in 2020 on Sunday;
  • Easter in 2020 fell on April 12-13; in 2019 – April 21-22,
  • in 2020, the May holiday weekend was exceptionally short: May 1st – Friday, May 3rd Sunday – 3 days total; in 2019: May 1st - Wednesday, May 3rd - Friday – 9 days total,
  • there are changes in traffic composition (proportions of passenger cars, trucks, etc.),
  • weekly traffic fluctuations are changing (during pandemic restrictions, weekend traffic was significantly lower than in the same period last year),
  • the nature of traffic is changing (economic, tourist-recreational),
  • there's different weather, changes in road infrastructure, international traffic restrictions, changes in annual ADT, no events, trade fairs, etc.

 

traffic measurement points

 

Daily and Weekly Traffic Changes

For each measurement point, I present two charts.
The first compares the ADT (Average Daily Traffic) coefficient from March 1, 2020, to March 1, 2019.
The second chart compares traffic intensity in corresponding weeks of 2020 and 2019, starting from week 10 of 2020 (Monday March 2 – Sunday March 8) and its corresponding week in 2019 (Monday March 4 – Sunday March 10).

Gdynia – Katowice and measurement station 22611 on the Tri-City bypass, road S6:

daily traffic

weekly traffic

Route S7: Warsaw – Gdańsk and measurement station 14612 between Kazuń and Łomianki:

daily traffic

weekly traffic

Warsaw – Białystok and measurement station 14625 between Radzymin and Lucynów, road S8:

daily measurement

weekly measurement

Road S8 - Warsaw – Katowice and measurement station 10618, Tomaszów Mazowiecki bypass:

daily traffic

weekly traffic

A4 Highway: Wrocław – Rzeszów and measurement station 12602, Kraków bypass:

daily traffic

weekly traffic

Wrocław – Zgorzelec and measurement station 02601 between Legnica and Krzyżowa, A4 highway.

I left this measurement point for last.
It's located on the approach to border crossings with Germany in Zgorzelec and Olszyna, not on a route between major cities. Due to international traffic restrictions, the decreases here were the largest (64%). Currently, the traffic level at this location is 61% of 2019 traffic. Changes at all measurement sections near borders look similar.

daily traffic

weekly traffic

If you're interested in other information about traffic on national roads in April, visit the GDDKiA websites:
https://www.gddkia.gov.pl/pl/a/37504/Ruch-na-drogach-krajowych-w-czasie-epidemii-Publikujemy-podsumowanie-za-kwiecien