Summer of sport: how Euro 2024 affected traffic in Germany

Euro 2024 in Germany was the highest-attended tournament ever, with 2.6 million people cramming into the country’s 10 stadiums.

German cities also hosted more than 5.8 million people in official fan zones, while 600,000 people participated in a fan walk, where roads were closed to allow them to stroll to the stadiums.

UEFA aimed to make this the most sustainable Euros ever – and encouraged train use to and from stadiums to reduce the volume of car traffic. That included free train travel for 36 hours with all match tickets. According to UEFA, 81% of fans used eco-friendly transport to get to stadiums.

Organizers also deployed a legion of initiatives to limit car usage during the Euros, from park-and-ride schemes to local road closures, increasing bike rental availability to closing car parks.

Easypark Group ran a study into football fans' pet peeves ahead of the Euros and found that parking was their biggest frustration. Cameron Clayton, CEO, added: “Events such as this truly highlight the importance of having an effective traffic management infrastructure in place; one built on both technology and data. The insights gathered from mobility solutions could help cities to prepare for busier periods and implement changes that make life easier for drivers while ensuring the spaces they occupy to stay livable.”

During the tournament, HERE was tracking real-time traffic congestion around football stadiums in Germany. Its congestion score – also called jam factor – is ranked from 0-10. Zero to <4 shows free-flowing traffic, while 4 to <6.3 indicates minor to heavy congestion. Above 6.3 shows heavy traffic up to complete gridlock.

So, Euro 2024 might have been the busiest tournament in the stadiums, but with all the measures put in place to limit car use, what effect did it have on the roads?

First match nerves

The first match kicked off with Germany versus Scotland at the Allianz Arena in Munich at 9pm on June 14th. Despite this being Germany’s first game, traffic remained calm throughout the day, with a jam factor factor of less than one. Peak congestion was no worse than other Fridays in May and June, perhaps indicating more people using public transport and working from home.

That changed when Slovenia played Serbia at 1pm on June 20th, when traffic at the Allianz Arena peaked at 4.09 – its busiest period in two months. Traffic congestion remained after the game and into the early evening. 

The congestion score from HERE Real-Time Traffic is mostly used for visual indications of traffic on the roadway – for example in the on-board navigation systems of your car. HERE Real-Time Traffic also provides the speed and travel times that are used to calculate your routes and estimated time of arrival. - Joe Ciprian, Product Manager, HERE

The traffic leaderboard

It was the roads around the Signal Iduna Park stadium in Dortmund that would win the trophy for most traffic congestion during the Euros. On June 18th, when Portugal faced off against the Czech Republic traffic peaked at 5.11 on the jam factor at 15:22pm, easing later in the afternoon to then rise again close to and during the 9pm match time.

Second place in the traffic league goes to the MHP Arena in Stuttgart. Congestion peaked at 4.63 – and remained heavy – during the afternoon of June 26th when Ukraine met Belgium at 6pm.

Third place goes to the Olympiastadion in Berlin. But it wasn’t the final that played havoc with the traffic. That accolade goes to the Netherlands versus Austria game on June 25th at 6pm, when traffic peaked with a jam factor of 4.57. Congestion remained heavy between 3pm and 4pm.

HERE Real-Time Traffic is a comprehensive, global traffic service commercially available on the market today. It supports drivers in reaching their destinations efficiently and stress-free with up-to-the-minute information about traffic flow, incidents and road works. - Sjoerd Spaargaren, Product Marketing Manager, HERE

Special mention award

Stuttgart’s MHP Arena hosted Germany’s quarter-final crunch match against Spain. But it was a relatively light day on the roads, with congestion remaining below 4.0 all day. From lunchtime onward, there was a bit more traffic, but it was never worse than 3.54, easing up dramatically the closer it got to kick off and into the rest of the evening.

The final countdown

During the Euro 2024 final, traffic at Berlin’s Olympiastadion started to build from 10am – even though kick-off wasn’t until 9pm. At 10:17 it peaked at 3:36 and ebbed and flowed throughout the day indicating a steady – but controlled – stream of traffic to and from the stadium up to and after the full-time whistle.

While it might have been the busiest Euros ever in terms of visitor numbers, Germany managed to keep traffic congestion at bay before, during and after matches. HERE’s data showed that no roads in the 10 cities hosting games suffered from gridlock during the month the tournament was on.