Motorway density in the EU, by NUTS 2 region, 2020: Highest densities in German & Dutch regions, as well as in the capital region of Hungary.
Motorway density in the EU, by NUTS 2 region, 2020: Highest densities in German & Dutch regions, as well as in the capital region of Hungary.
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The main influencing factor for a dense motorway network is transport demands. Such demands are particularly high in urban and other densely-populated areas, industrial areas and around major seaports.
The highest motorway densities in the EU are found in regions of Germany, the Netherlands as well as in the capital region of Hungary.
Most European capitals and large cities are surrounded by a ring of motorways in order to meet the high demand for road transport.
Dense motorway networks are found around capitals such as Budapest (120 km/1 000 km²), Vienna (109 km/1 000 km²), Madrid (96 km/1 000 km²), Prague (91 km/1 000 km²) and Berlin (91 km/1 000 km²).
Region sizes vary across the EU with some capitals being designated as regions themselves, such as Vienna, whereas other capitals are parts of a larger region, such as Paris being part of the Île-de-France region.
As a consequence, small capital regions in most cases have higher motorway densities compared to larger regions that include a capital. For example, the motorway density of the small Vienna region is higher than the density of the large Île-de-France region, even though Paris has a bigger motorway network than Vienna.
Other densely-populated regions with high motorway density include the Randstad area in the western part of the Netherlands (Utrecht: 132 km/1 000 km2 and Zuid-Holland: 124 km/1 000 km2), which is of high economic importance.
High motorway densities are also found around some of the main seaports of northern Europe which are vital to support economic activity: the motorway densities of regions of Bremen (205 km/1 000 km²) with the port of Bremerhaven, of Zuid-Holland with the port of Rotterdam (124 km/1 000 km²) and of Hamburg (107 km/1 000 km²) are among the highest of all European regions.
NL ruling party sees more asphalt as the only way to fix traffic jams
In Poland express ways with max speed of 120km/h often have 3 lanes each directions (especially true around Warsaw), while most 140km/h motorways will have only 2 lanes (Katowice area visible on the map is an exception since due to high population density motorways are often used in daily commute).
Taking into account only motorways in this case is very misleading.
hehe NUTS