Budapest traffic: is it worse than ever?

Recently, it has become more and more a topic that there are traffic jams everywhere in Budapest. These are usually subjective opinions, individual experiences. In addition, these opinions came after more than a year of low traffic. What do the numbers say?

Recently, more and more traffic jams have been reported from the Budapest area, writes Metropol. The Hungarian government uses this to create a negative image of Gergely Karácsony, the opposition mayor of Budapest. With the help of telex.hu we looked at what the numbers show.

The number of car purchases has exploded.

Compared to 2019, 10 per cent more people use their cars in the capital. The number of congestions in Budapest also increased by 10 per cent. Car usage can be inferred from fuel consumption data, car purchase data, and data from GPS applications. The number of car purchases has jumped.  In the first five months of 2021, more than 60,000 new cars were sold. More new cars mean more traffic.

The Waze navigation application measures the number of users. This obviously does not cover the entire traffic in Budapest. However, nearly 20000 users represent traffic trends fairly well. In June of 2021, 10 per cent more people used their car than two years ago at that time. TomTom shows daily and weekly average congestion levels. The company’s data shows that compared to 2019,

the number of traffic jams is slightly higher.

On the company’s maps, you can also see which roads have the biggest traffic jams. Based on this, the Nagykörút and Hegyalja street are the two focal points. Furthermore, in the case of the lower quay of Buda, Andrássy street, Üllői street, Gyáli street and Hungária street, we can expect more traffic congestion.

There are several reasons for the formation of traffic jams. Downtown road and bridge renovations began a couple of weeks ago. The renovation of the Chain Bridge has started, the lower quay of Pest is closed, and there will soon be a restriction on Blaha Lújza Square. So the amount of traffic jams is not significantly higher under the leadership of Gergely Karácsony than before. In addition, more cars and road renovations also make car traffic more difficult.

Source: Metropol, telex.hu