The cost of traffic jams

A new report by traffic services provider Inrix in cooperation with the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) showed Tuesday the costs of traffic jams for private households and national economies were bound to skyrocket in the years ahead.

The study noted that people in Europe and the US currently wasted an average 111 hours annually in gridlock.

The research showed that traffic congestion was becoming a significant drain on people's wallets and domestic economies at large in the four nations scrutinized in the report, the US, Britain, France and Germany.

Road to hell?

The study forecast the combined annual cost of gridlock to these nations would soar to $293 billion (231 billion euros) by 2030, marking an almost 50-percent increase from 2013.

The estimated cumulative costs for Germany over that period were put at 520 billion euros, a fifth of the nation's current gross domestic product (GDP).

"This study warns of the mounting impact of traffic jams and high traffic volumes on the roads," Inrix vice president Andreas Hecht said in a statement. "We already think that congestion is a bad thing, but we're for a really big shock by 2030."

The study did not provide a blueprint for a remedy. It only notes that cities needed to become far more innovative to ease the traffic situation.

"Investment in better public transport infrastructure in urban regions could provide people with more motivation not to use cars," Hecht said, adding, though, that this alone would not suffice to avoid a future traffic collapse.

hg/sgb (dpa, Inrix)