They were announced. And they are present this Saturday. A peak of 623 kilometers of traffic jams was reached on the roads of France on Saturday. That is almost twice as large as that of last year at the same period, when the day of departures on summer holidays was classified red at the national level and black in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
On July 10, 2021, Bison Fûté had indeed recorded a total of 1,136.3 kilometers of disturbances at the height of the day. But the traffic remains heavy: as expected, slowdowns were concentrated from the start of the morning on the A7 in the direction of the south where there were around 11 a.m. nearly 100 kilometers of disturbances at the exit from Lyon, according to Bison Fûté . The travel time on the Autoroute du Soleil between the south of Lyon and Orange was 3h20 instead of 1h35, as indicated by its operator Vinci Autoroutes on Twitter, an axis which will be heavily congested until 7 p.m.
Peak of 785 km of traffic jams on Friday
At the same time, traffic was “dense and disrupted” on the A10 from Saint-Arnoult (Yvelines) towards Bordeaux where it took 1h45 more to reach the Gironde capital, according to the same source. More than 67 km of traffic jams were then recorded on this axis, specifies Bison Fûté, who had strongly recommended on Friday to avoid the Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines toll between 7 a.m. and 12 p.m. and the Orléans-Tours axis between 12 p.m. o’clock and 3 p.m.
At the same time on the A9, patience was required on the Orange-Narbonne axis with a journey time of more than four hours instead of 1 hour 40 minutes. From the Aude capital, holidaymakers going to the Spanish border had to take 1h15 instead of the usual 45 minutes, notes Vinci again.
Friday, a day already classified as red in Ile-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, a peak of 785 km of traffic jams was recorded at the end of the afternoon.
In total, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion expects 12 red days and one black day over the summer period. Sunday, the day was classified green for departures.