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The ten longest traffic jams in world history
A seemingly endless line of GDR cars, mainly Trabis, has formed to the west. The crowd was especially big on the Easter days months after the fall of the Berlin Wall …April 1990.
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
Commuters are annoyed by the daily rush hour. But there is much worse. The US magazine "Forbes" has identified the ten most important traffic jams in the world. A German is also there.
E.r is the horror of all drivers: the traffic jam. Last year, German drivers stood in a metal column for an average of 36 hours. This is what the navigation provider TomTom has calculated.
Automobile clogging is a disaster for the economy. It costs the domestic economy 7.8 billion and each commuter household 533 euros, as Inrix, a provider of traffic information, has calculated in collaboration with the Center of Economics and Business. The costs arise, among other things, from additional fuel burned (824 million euros), wasted time (4.8 billion euros) and rising goods costs (2.1 billion euros).
36 hours of traffic jam spread over the year for German drivers are just a piece of cake. In Sao Paolo, for example, drivers are stuck in traffic for several hours a day. If the vacation ends or the weather is in chaos, nothing works anymore. In June 2009 it was jammed in the Brazilian metropolis over a length of over 200 kilometers.
Before Hurricane Rita hit Texas in 2005, there was unprecedented traffic chaos on Highway 45 towards Dallas because many Americans wanted to flee inland. The return traffic after the Woodstock Festival in New York State in 1969 was also noteworthy. The US magazine "Forbes" has now compiled a list of the ten most important traffic jams in world history.
The industry is meanwhile waiting with new technologies against the annoying phenomenon. There are traffic jam detectors that can use cell phone data from other drivers to create traffic reports in real time, and there are new driver assistance systems that make driving in stop-and-go mode easier.
New traffic jam assistant in the XC90 and X5
BMW, Mercedes and Volvo, for example, are researching the technology at full speed. The system not only independently maintains the distance to the vehicle in front, but can also follow it around bends thanks to fully automatic steering. The technology is based on the adaptive cruise control that Volvo and other manufacturers have been offering for years. However, the Swedes have integrated a steering function for the first time, and BMW is now also offering this up to a speed of 40 km / h.
The driver can activate the system at the push of a button and take control again at any time with a grip on the steering wheel or a step on the pedals. The assistant is likely to celebrate its premiere in the XC90 SUV model, the new generation of which will be launched in 2014. BMW equips the new X5 with the traffic jam assistant. The new S-Class is also available with a traffic jam assistant.
It will be inevitable that traffic jams will continue to occur in the future. They have become an integral part of our car culture.
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