Last year alone, traffic rose by 10 percent on the M3 stretch leading into the capital, the busiest motorway leading into Budapest from the east, data from public road management company Magyar Közút showed. Most motorway stretches around the capital run at or above 100 percent capacity and traffic jams have become a permanent fixture even without accidents and road repairs.
This is a combined result of several factors. First the growing number of motor vehicles: last year alone, the number of new cars was 136,000 and this year the number could rise to 160,000. The second factor is that a growing number of residents leave central Budapest for the outskirts because of lower real estate prices and a more livable environment. Additionally, an increasing number of commuters choose personal instead of public transportation. Finally, fuel prices have also remained low in the past year.
Budapest has a population of 1.75 million and according to think-tank Lechner Tudásközpont some 200,000 people commute every day to downtown Budapest from the suburbs, coming from over 2,000 settlements.
Although public transport has seen some improvements – mainly in rolling stock – over the past years, the aging rail infrastructure is prone to malfunctions that can halt trains for hours at a time. Additional suburban rail lines are also required, as well as an underground connection between the capital’s two busiest railway stations.
But all of these are huge investments and could take decades.
