I'm opening this thread so we can share our nightmare stories about highway traffic jams we've experienced as drivers or passengers.

I was thinking about leaving out events like weather or accidents that imply in road closures, because they are not exactly related to having too few lanes for traffic demand.

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Worst congestion I've ever got due to traffic was on a drive from Genève (Switzerland) to Bologna (Italy), on Sunday, 4/11/2007. I knew traffic would be hard, but after crossing with few if any queues the Mont Blanc tunnel (which acts effectively as a ramp meter for the A5 in Italy, I was excited about reaching home soon.

I even dared to stop in a village to watch the sunset for 30-40 minutes. After that, I took the A5 direction Southeast again, and near St. Vicent things got rapidly worse, then we were stuck bump-to-bump traffic. I know there were no highway or any road, indeed, generating traffic in that direction down the road, so the jam was either due to a lane closure (accident) or things were so bad further down that we were caught in a backup jam

The latter proved true... Upon reaching the A4 interchange, I made a huge mistake and decided to head through Milano (A4-A1) instead of Alexandria (A26 - A21), because I could see free-flowing traffic on the A4 and a lot of red backlights on the A26. After 10-12km of free traffic, it become bump-to-bump again... some stretches would allow 40-50km/h for less than one km, then it was 10-20, then a sequence of complete stops (frustrating).

Near the toll plaza, the standstill was complete. Later, I read that they had reduced the available booths to prevent further congestion on Milano's ringroads so traffic would disperse quickly once clearing these "gates". Indeed, I could complete the A1 sector at 125-130 km/h, and arrived at 2am for what was supposed to be "in time to get to the pub with friends" :ohno:

Until them, I was wary of taking local parallel roads (most Italian highways have close aligned local roads) detour because they can get congested too. But since them I started developing whole alternative routes that bypasses freeway axes completely. They are a nice try if traffic is really bad (like below 30 km/h + stops).

I also figured out that the increased use of GPS is reducing the ability of drivers, particular very new drives, to navigate the road network in cases like this. They will always follow the GPS when outside their surroundings.

From Ivrea to the Milano toll it took us 6 hours for a stretch normally driven in 1h30 (~130 km distance).

For me was when I was a passenger driving from Portugal to Ireland, it took about 3 hours to cross the French-Spanish border in both directions due to the huge amount of Portuguese and Moroccan immigrants in France and Luxembourg. At one service station, my family was the only one not talking in Portuguese and the only one with a Portuguese registered car.

somehow i have allway managed to avoind huge jams. i really don't know which one could be the worse, if it could be bad at all. maybe once in France around Béziers at A9, truck accident, we've been crawling about 45 minutes 10-20 km/h, so maybe some 20 km.

I usually try to avoid rush hours and peak holiday travel days if possible.

Once though, I was driving on German A46 near Düsseldorf on a Sunday, and because of (finished) road works, the Autobahn was narrowed from 3 to 1 lanes. To make things worse, there was an on-ramp of Kreuz Düsseldorf-Süd, and people tried to use the C/D lane as well, so it effectively went from 5 to 1 lane.

That one took me 1 hour for 1 kilometer.

I also once left The Hague around 3 pm. I wasn't home until 7 pm, 4 hours for around 150 kilometers. That was just regular rush-hour traffic. The first 80 kilometers took 3 hours from The Hague via Amsterdam to Amersfoort. (A12 was closed at the time).

^^At the risk of angering Suburbanist, it boggles the mind that there could be rush-hour congestion across an entire country (even one the size of the Netherlands), particularly one with excellent public transportation. Yes, maybe this just proves that people prefer to drive, and it'd be hypocritical of me to fault them for that*, but still there's something wrong there....

*particularly since I live a ten-minute walk from work, so rush hours are hypothetical to me, and haven't been on a train since I acquired a car not quite two years ago after 13 years without one. Although I'll use the subway to, for example, baseball games. Seems silly to sit in traffic and pay to park.

it boggles the mind that there could be rush-hour congestion across an entire country (even one the size of the Netherlands), particularly one with excellent public transportation. Yes, maybe this just proves that people prefer to drive, and it'd be hypocritical of me to fault them for that*, but still there's something wrong there....
.

It's not only a taste for traffic jams, but if you account for the whole commute, door-to-door, even with traffic jams you will usually arrive earlier by car here in Netherlands. It is not my case because I live in front (exactly) of Tilburg University, the parking lot for the university is further than my apartment from my room there.

Trains here in Netherlands will be usually faster in peak times if your origin and destination are close to stations. But if you have to walk/bike/take a tram/metro/bus in each nod more than 20 minutes each, any advantage of the train evaporated. Though the whole country is quite dense, the urban environment of Nederlandse cities doesn't have very high density business districts. Indeed, only Rotterdam has a quite widespread high-rise business district. So it is not uncommon for people to simple not live or work near a train station, though there are 318 of them, to my knowledge (ProRail + Randstad Rail).

It is also rather common for couples to work in different cities and live in a third.

As for holiday travel, it is impossible to compete with the car for family trips. First, trains are expensive to travel in 3, 4 people. Second, families (and group of friends, couples for that matter) usually take a decent amount of luggage. Third, holiday destinations are scattered and not easily accessible by public transportation - even in The Netherlands.

For instance, if I decide to go to the Tesrchelling Island, it will take me from where I live at 4h15 (just checked NS website) and 4 changes in 's-Hertogenbosch, Utrecht, Zwolle and Leeuwarden. Now imagine a family with children, seaboards, maybe camping gear... it's a no-brain: stuff everything in the car :D

On my 55 km trip to work (without congestion 40 min) my normal morning rush-hour delay is about 15 minutes, but I've experienced once a traveltime of 2,5 hours because of severe traffic accidents.

I never drove through the Swiss Gotthard tunnel on summer weekends, so I was once really unpleasantly surprised with a 20-km jam on a Thursday. It took me 2 hours.

I never drove through the Swiss Gotthard tunnel on summer weekends, so I was once really unpleasantly surprised with a 20-km jam on a Thursday. It took me 2 hours.

During summer peak travels, I ALWAYS took the detours through the mountain passes near St. Gotthard and near the Monte Bianco (though it requires more advanced planning to detour from the latter).

Last year the maximum waiting time for the Gotthard was 6 hours southbound. I believe it's been somewhat less this year.

Last year on C-14 road we went into slow traffic all the way from Reus to Montblanc (Junction with N-240). We took about a hour to go 20 km, despite that between Reus and Alcover it's an expressway.

Construction on the Cedar Street Bridge where Interstates 64, 70, and 55 cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Rush hour on a Friday night. Awful.

Some years ago, Saturday morning (bad planning, I know, but I did not expect that situation) several hours of jam at Tarvisio toll plaza from Italy to Austria. Sometimes we stood 10-20 minutes without moving at all. A Polish family took a walk woth the dog, Czech girls took the deckcheair and enjoyed the sun :-)

Third, holiday destinations are scattered and not easily accessible by public transportation - even in The Netherlands.
In Hungary the most popular holiday destination, lake Balaton is easily accessible from Budapest by train. Heavy traffic (trains in each hour, and even twice an hour in the morning direction Balaton, and in the evening direction Budapest) so that children and young people use the train. Families and people travelling to the Adriatic coast of Croatia use the car (motorway M7) so that the motorway is always heavily congested Friday afternoon and Saturday morning direction Balaton/Croatia, and Sunday evening direction Budapest. This jam blocks a lot of urban roads in Budapest as well, Friday afternoon it is almost impossible to leave the city even if you don't go to holidays but simply have a bad luck and your house is near to M7.
Once I was sitting in my car and one single corner distance (about 200 meters) took 25 minutes inside Budapest but directed to M7. Friday afternoon/evening is terrible from May to September.

The worst one can I remember was M1 between London and Sheffield, whole route was like a massive traffic jam... It took around 7 or 8 hours...

Heading home after the fireworks on the 4th of July at Fort Vancouver Washington. It took an hour and a half just to go the few miles from the fort to to the I-205 bridge to Portland, then about another hour as we crawled into Portland just across the river until it meets up with I-84 where half the traffic turned off backing up that freeway.. It took over 3 hours what is normally a 25 minute drive.

Just rush hour in the Fraser Valley in BC on the Trans Canada Hwy. Don't miss it either. Plugged up worse than my sinuses from the Cassiar Tunnel, all the way to Abbotsford.

Stuck in traffic with every one and their families going North in Israel for the holidays. Took me once 7 hours to get to a destination that usually would take 2.5 hours. I hope they complete the new part of Freeway 6 soon that would save time but cost $$ (electronic toll freeway)

In the USA well, mostly rush hours but sometimes road work during the day is done so badly that, well, you regret leaving home :)

I hope they complete the new part of Freeway 6 soon that would save time but cost $$ (electronic toll freeway)

Actually, it costs ₪ :D

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Israel_Toll_Symbol.svg/235px-Israel_Toll_Symbol.svg.png

When I visited Los Angeles in 2007 and drove on the 405 in afternoon rush hour.

Some of mine was on Italian motorways, before toll booths and on the Milan-Venice road. Incredible amounts of trucks.
But one memorable traffic jam was when we went to see a concert in Linz (Austria) from Budapest. On the way back the trip from Linz to Budapest took four hours, we arrived from the M1-M7 to Budapest around 6 am, but a massive accident on one of the bridges blocked up the whole of South west Buda, so it took me another 3 hours to get through to northern Buda (normally about 25-35 mins).

I had my portion of jams last week...

1. Berlin - Szczecin: 20 km jammed on the A11 before the interchange with the A20... Delay about 1hr
2. Poznan - Berlin (E30): 15 km total stand still on a single carriegeway with 90% trucks, 10% cars. Every 5-10 minutes we moved about 200 meters. Turned out there were some road works and every direction had to take turns past a terrible traffic light. Delay at least 3 hrs.
3. Munich - Stuttgart (A8): Completely jammed from Munich to Stuttgart. 200 km at an average speed of 30 km/h, delay about 5 hrs.

Worst jam i've ever been in: German A7 south from northern Hamburg to the Elbtunnel. 15km traffic jam
And back north: 10km traffic jam

2nd worst would be an ~10km traffic jam on the French A6 somewhere around Lyon

Worst jam i've ever been in: German A7 south from northern Hamburg to the Elbtunnel. 15km traffic jam
And back north: 10km traffic jam

2nd worst would be an ~10km traffic jam on the French A6 somewhere around Lyon

I got stuck on the A7 (north) around Hamburg a couple of weeks ago too for around 2-3 hours. By stuck I mean the kind where people just turn off the engine, get out of the car and try to pass the time as best they can. I don't think there were exceptional circumstances, other than the combination of construction and Friday afternoon, and probably a stopped vehicle or two (don't know whether they were the cause or effect though)..

Venice Mestre A4 barrier in 2003: 18 km jammed. Lots of trucks and cars. The barrier wasn't very big.
Nowadays there is Mestre bypass.

Worst traffic I experienced was the Capital Beltway in Maryland a few years back...I think it took almost 1.5 hours to drive about 10 miles.

Driving in the DC area in general sucks.

I-95 in Connecticut in-between the NY border and New Haven is also a bad ride.

My worst traffic jam: last year, before Christmas, the entire M43 motorway in Hungary was jammed with romanians working abroad that came home for Christmas. It was the first time I stopped and waited on a motorway. From Szeged untill the border at Nadlac/Nagylak the road was also jammed but at least we were moving (50-60 km/h).

last year, before Christmas, the entire M43 motorway in Hungary was jammed

The M43 was 3 km long last year :D

The M43 was 3 km long last year :D

I know it was only 3 km long, but the actual situation was something like this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=E75&daddr=Kossuth+Lajos+sug%C3%A1r%C3%BAt+to:46.214288,20.474739+to:DN7%2FE68&hl=ro&geocode=FQzPwgIdLLYxAQ%3BFbDZwQIdDFszAQ%3B%3BFfoAwQIdyClEAQ&mra=dpe&mrcr=1&mrsp=2&sz=12&via=2&sll=46.213101,20.43663&sspn=0.131377,0.308647&ie=UTF8&ll=46.21215,20.624084&spn=1.051019,2.469177&t=h&z=9):

A - B: road was blocked because there were to many cars
B - C: average speed: 50 km/h because of the congestion
bonus: at the border crossing we had to wait quite a long time, even though they were working on 8 or 9 lanes in our direction


After we waited for quite a long time at M5/M43 junction and we saw that cars were not moving, we went on this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=E75&daddr=Traseul+55+to:K%C3%A1lv%C3%A1ria+sug%C3%A1r%C3%BAt+to:P%C3%A1rizsi+k%C3%B6r%C3%BAt+to:46.258799,20.143497&geocode=FQzPwgIdLLYxAQ%3BFaWzwQIdH9oxAQ%3BFXbAwQIdeEQzAQ%3BFdPWwQIdSVkzAQ%3B&hl=ro&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=4&sz=16&via=1,2,3&sll=46.258592,20.140986&sspn=0.008204,0.01929&ie=UTF8&ll=46.282428,20.145836&spn=0.131211,0.308647&t=h&z=12) route to reach Szeged centrum.

Yesterday it took me 4 hours to get from downtown leiden to highway A4, so that's about 3 miles i think, so 3 miles in 4 hours. I had cramp in my left feet because of the stop & go traffic.

also for me worst ever Mestre barrier before the bypass opening: 5 hours from Padova to the end of Mestre (around 30 km)

Last summer I was coming back from Lake City, Florida and about two hours into the 5 hour trip going down the turnpike to South FL a car somewhere between 5-10 miles ahead caught on fire. The backup didn't start really feel like a backup at first since traffic was still flowing smoothly, then it all stopped and we were stuck there for about an hour.

Driving to an airshow, the traffic was banked up for about 30km. But since the freeway was upgraded, the flow is much faster.

also for me worst ever Mestre barrier before the bypass opening: 5 hours from Padova to the end of Mestre (around 30 km)

That was a hell of a bottleneck. So glad they built the bypass.

Bumper to bumper south of Santa Fe on I-25 for 18 miles to the nearest exit thanks to a fatal car wreck.

I-95 in Connecticut in-between the NY border and New Haven is also a bad ride.

No kidding. Don't forget the portion that goes through NY too. I was going into CT from Hoboken on a Friday afternoon. What would have taken 2 hrs without traffic ended up taking 6 hrs. Yuck.

The worst regularly scheduled traffic jam has to be the Capital beltway in Maryland at rush hour. Once I fought it out to get to my lane, it was 20 mph all the way...

711 km of jams in France today, supposedly an all-time summer record:

http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/france/2010-08-07/un-record-estival-de-711-km-de-bouchons-en-france-785754.php

The weird thing is this wasn't even considered a "black Saturday".

No kidding. Don't forget the portion that goes through NY too. I was going into CT from Hoboken on a Friday afternoon. What would have taken 2 hrs without traffic ended up taking 6 hrs. Yuck.

My all-time worst jam may involve travel along that same corridor, but using the Merritt. A Friday afternoon in August 1988: left work in Secaucus, N.J., about 2:00 - so well before rush hour - for a vacation in New England. Had a room reserved that night near Providence. It took four hours to reach New Haven, a distance of about 80 miles. After that, it was fine, and I rolled into Providence (Seekonk, Mass., actually) about 8.

Driving along the A7 Milan - Genoa motorway, I experienced something like taking 2 hours for 2 km road.

A huge accident involving a track transporting wood and another truck carrying pieces of pottery, more or less at Serravalle.

One truck had a downfall of blocks of ceramics, that hit the other truck on the lateral side, since the other driver noticed something wrong with the truck in front of him and tried to move on the right along the emergency lane.

A wonderful show, with the motorway becoming suddenly red and pieces of wood everywhere.

Then the A7 was completely blocked.
People turned their cars off and started to go around, some of them even crossed the guardrail to go to the nearest Autogrill.
People sunbathing, playing football...:D

Last year on C-14 road we went into slow traffic all the way from Reus to Montblanc (Junction with N-240). We took about a hour to go 20 km, despite that between Reus and Alcover it's an expressway.

No, I've been on a worst traffic jam. Back in 2007, on then A-23 near Saragossa (Now A-23 has been realigned and part of the section I went jammed has been renumbered back to N-330) we took about a hour to go 3 kilometers. The reason is that they were repaving and went from 2 lanes to only one.

I've been stuck in a couple of terrible jams in France, once 20 years ago on the way from Orleans to Reims just south of Paris, can't remember which road, it wasn't a motorway, 4 hours moving at an average of 5km/h

Another time I got trapped in traffic on the ile d'oleron for about 3 hours.

Worst jam I've ever been in was this winter, coming back to Italy from holidays in Munich... It was January 2nd, and the traffic jam was basically uninterrupted between A8-A93 junction in Germany near Rosenheim and Trento, in Italy. More or less 300km in queue. Instead of the usual 5 hours form Munich to Bologna it took more than 11 hours...

Yesterday evening was a traffic jam on Kecskemet bypass (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Traseul+44&daddr=46.849626,19.662437&hl=ro&geocode=FfjFywIdgJ8tAQ%3B&mra=mi&mrsp=1,0&sz=12&sll=46.898677,19.70089&sspn=0.129728,0.308647&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=12) due to the International Air and Military Show in Hungary (http://repulonap.hu/airshow/rovatok/en/2010/info/once_again/). But at least the police made all it's best to keep the traffic flowing.

One of my worst traffic jams was also on 11th August 1999, on the day of the total solar eclipse. It was visible in a tiny corner of NE Slovenia, which means tens of thousands of Slovenes went there that day (me included). It was basically a jam for the last 80 km. We needed some 6 hours to get there.

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee119/Verso1/mrk.jpg

So you've missed it? :D

I was present at the 1999 solar eclipse too, in Landsberg am Lech, Germany.

Me too, in the suburbs to the east of Paris!

^^ I went to Munich to watch the eclipse, after an epic train trip Ancona-Bologna-Brenner-Munich...

I remember it vividly, we were driving through the rain all the time, it was pouring down, and it was cloudless for just the time around the eclipse, talk about luck.

^^
That's my recall also of the eclipse: cloudless for just the time of the event :) How far is Landsberg from Munich anyway?
I also remember trying to take pictures of the eclipse (I took a full equipment), but unfortunately the film malfunctioned and it was not loaded by the camera.... :( :( :(

Landsberg is some 50 kilometers west of München. We were at vacation near Imst, Austria at the time and decided to drive north to experience the eclipse. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

So you've missed it? :D

No no, we departed early enough; we didn't wanna miss such an occurence. Oh, it's exactly 11 years since the eclipse.

Yep, and I saw a partial eclipse then. I saw two more (consecutive!) eclipses, one of them had the ring zone going through Spain :D (In 2005)