Belgian traffic jams are at worst level ever

Traffic on Belgian roads has reached its worst-ever level in the last six months, according to new figures released by road monitor Touring Mobilis.

Between January and June, the number of hours of "structural" traffic jams - congestion caused by nothing other than the everyday conditions - reached 708.

In the same period last year, 607 hours of delays were recorded, and in the first half of 2012 there were 394 hours of jams.

The cause for such a growth in tailbacks is simply that more people are making journeys by car than ever before - without the necessary changes to the road network.

“Our road infrastructure is almost the same as 40 years ago,” says Danny Smagghe, Touring Mobilis spokesperson.

Touring Mobilis has proposed several solutions to the issue, including better digital traffic management, using more information board and opening up previously unusable lanes in peak hours.

As it stands, the road most affected by heavy congestion is the Zellik-Jette stretch of the anti-clockwise Brussels ring, which can be congested for up to 16 hours per day.