7 worst traffic jams in world's history which affected millions | In Pics
7 worst traffic jams in world's history which affected millions | In Pics
Traffic jams are the worst experience for commuters as even a moment of congestion seems a waste of time. Imagine, if someone is stuck in a jam that lasts for days or is hundreds of kilometres long! Here are seven such instances from history which show how horrible jams can be.
Bethel, New York, 1969: A 20-mile traffic was witnessed in Bethel when nearly 4,00,000 people thronged the city to attend Woodstock, a music festival. These people stayed there for four days making it one the biggest gathering in history with almost negligible ill incidents.
The festival was held on land owned by the farmer. Due to the massive jam, the attendees had to walk for kilometres while the performers had to fly out in a helicopter.
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Tokyo, Japan, 1990: The city-wide evacuation due to a typhoon warning and a large number of people returning to the city after the holidays led to massive traffic jams that stretched over 135 km. Over 15,000 vehicles were involved in the jam between Hyogo and Shiga prefectures in western Japan.
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Chicago, 2011: Chicago witnessed a traffic jam that lasted for over 12 hours in February 2011 after over 50.8 cm of snowfall was recorded during rush hour.
The cars were almost buried. People turned their engines on for heat due to which gas was drained from many vehicles. People abandoned their cars deeming it too dangerous to stay.
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Beijing-Tibet Expressway traffic jam, 2010: In August 2010, the Beijing-Tibet Expressway saw one of the worst traffic jams in world history which lasted for 12 days. The jam was the longest recorded in the world spanning over 100 kilometres.
The jam started after coal-carrying trucks, transporting construction material to Beijing choked at a traffic bottleneck where roadwork was underway. Some vehicles also broke down due to which the jam worsened.
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Sao Paulo, 2009: Sao Paulo is known for its traffic congestion. In 2009, the city faced 182 km of stalled vehicles over 840 km of blocked city. All routes in and out of the city were blocked in the world's worst traffic jam.
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Houston, Texas, 2005: In that year, Hurricane Rita, a category 5 storm was approaching due to which, over two million people were leaving the city. It was predicted that the storm would cause damages worth billions of dollars.
In a rush to leave the city ahead of landfall, a massive jam stretched up to 160 km which lasted for 48 hours.
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Moscow, Russia, 2012: The traffic jam of 201 km is the longest at the hands of bad weather. The snowstorm buried the M-10 Highway between St. Petersburg to Moscow.
During the jam, the cars were feet-deep in piles of snow. Some were even stranded for three days until were dug out.
