After last weekend's monster traffic jams on major European roads to the most popular holiday destinations, those taking to Europe's roads can expect another weekend of major congestion.
Last weekend was the first weekend coded black for traffic heading south, with more than 1,100 kilometres of traffic jams in France on Saturday – a new record for this day. But last year the second so-called "black weekend" (the colour code used by travel assistance organisation VAB) was busier than the first as holiday traffic on European roads usually reaches a peak then.
If that scenario repeats itself, it will be "pitch black" in France, the organisation warned. It stressed that this weekend, returning traffic could also face more inconvenience.
VAB expects greater inconvenience around Paris, especially on the A86, as well as bumper-to-bumper driving on popular routes like the A10 to Bordeaux and the A6 and A7 (Autoroute du Soleil). Alternative routes to this notoriously busy road are the A75 (Clermont-Ferrand - Béziers) or in Dijon following the A39 towards Geneva to then reconnect with the A7 near Lyon via the A42. But queues should still be expected – especially at Béziers.
VAB also expects heavy traffic on the A9 towards the Spanish border. The Mont-Blanctunnel, which has been very busy all summer towards Italy, will also see heavy traffic in the opposite direction next weekend.
From Germany to Italy
The organisation also expects busier return traffic in Germany, as in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, the summer holidays have already ended and, as a result, a lot of Germans are returning home this weekend.
The biggest problems are likely to occur on the A8 Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Munich-Salzburg axis and A3/A9 Würzburg-Nuremberg-Munich in both directions and for the A7 Würzburg-Ulm. Around border crossings into Austria – for example in Füssen, Kufstein and near Salzburg – queues are also expected, as well as in the north, on the A7 Hamburg-Flensburg towards Scandinavia.
In Austria, the Tauern Tunnel and the Karawank Tunnel on the A10-A11, where last weekend people were queueing for more than 1.5 hours, will remain the busiest points. Heavy traffic is also expected on the A13 Brenner motorway and the Fernpass. In Tyrol, through holiday traffic is not allowed to leave the A12 in the Kufstein, Reutte and Innsbruck areas to avoid traffic jams via an alternative route. The same applies to the A10 in Salzburg.
In Switzerland, the Gotthard tunnel has been busy southbound all summer and will now also be much busier for those returning north. It could also get busy on the A13 Sargans-Bellinzona due to increase traffic in the San Bernardo tunnel.
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Finally, the VAB also expects very busy traffic in Italy, as August is the traditional holiday month for Italians. The biggest problems for tourists from the northern regions are expected on the A5 Mont Blanc tunnel-Turin, the A9 Chiasso-Milan, the A1 Milan-Bologna-Firenze and the A22 Bolzano-Firenze.
Touring is also predicting major traffic problems on the roads to and from the south next weekend. Traffic jams towards France will start from noon on Friday. Even on Monday, the Rhône Valley will still be very busy. Elsewhere in France and the rest of Europe, traffic will resume its normal flow from Monday onwards.
