If you thought you had a bad time when stuck in a 5-lane traffic jam, then think about it one more time!
China’s official news agency, The People’s Daily, said that thousands of travelers were stuck in their cars for hours on that day.
【空中拍攝中國黃金週“回潮”遊客】一下交通堵塞的情況為2015年10月6號空中拍攝的北京﹣香港﹣澳門特快通道的景象。在10月1開始的國慶黃金週即將結束之際,家家戶戶都已準備結束出行向家中歸趕。交通管制部門數據顯示有7.5億人口流動。 pic.twitter.com/CbgpDlzNZX
— 人民日報 People's Daily (@PDChinese) October 6, 2015
But why would they even build a 50-lane highway? Is it due to the dense population in the city? Or maybe this is even not a 50-lane highway?
Why did this traffic jam happen in the first place?
The gridlock was so terrible that traffic didn’t move for hours, making the trip home a nerve-wracking experience.
Traffic was backed up because of a major tourist event that had just ended, according to local newspaper The People’s Daily. During China’s week-long National Day holiday, millions of visitors traveled throughout the nation, possibly contributing to the already heavy traffic.
Sohu TV, a Chinese news outlet, obtained drone footage to demonstrate the extent of the damage.
It is a 4-lane Highway!
If you count the number of vehicles on a higher-resolution picture (like this), you will see that the “50-lane wide” phrase is typically correct for this part of the road, and only in this case.
Because this part of the road is actually just 25 legal lanes, but due to the huge amount of traffic, people started creating new lanes in between.
This clearly shows that the G4 expressway is not an actual “50-lane highway.” From the air, it’s clear that the G4 Expressway is just a simple four-lane road. Before the Zhuozhou Toll Gate, by about 650 meters, the number of lanes starts to increase, reaching its widest point up to 25 “legal” lanes.
After the Zhuozhou Toll Gate by about 450 meters, the lanes start to decrease back to just four lanes.
Using Google Maps, we have captured an overhead image of the toll to present to you. Before and after the toll section, the highway is just a simple four-lane road in both directions: