Ten Years with the Blanka Tunnel: Prague’s Traffic Is Overloaded, and Only a Third of the Necessary Measures Have Been Implemented

In September 2025, Prague’s Blanka Tunnel marked its 10th anniversary of operation. The fact that it still hasn’t been fully approved for permanent use is just one of its problems. As AutoMat has now calculated, only one-third of the necessary accompanying measures aimed at achieving its main goal — reducing surface traffic — have been implemented since its opening. Meanwhile, traffic in Prague has increased by more than 11%. Our new analysis shows that without sufficient complementary measures, such large-scale infrastructure projects can have a negative impact on urban development and public health.

We already estimated what the Blanka tunnel complex would bring to the capital when it opened on 19 September 2015. Equally interesting were the promises made by politicians, including the bet by former mayor Pavel Bém on the construction cost. Unfortunately, the real outcomes have exceeded even our most skeptical expectations — in all areas we monitored.

Did Blanka make sense?

Ten years ago, AutoMat, as part of the campaign Give Blanka a Purpose, formulated a series of compensatory measures that, by improving conditions for public and non-motorized transport, would mitigate the negative effects of the tunnel’s operation. These included limiting transit through Prague’s historic center, humanizing the North-South highway, calming Argentinská Street and the Barikádníků Bridge, and introducing a bus line through Blanka.

Most of the proposals were prepared confidentially by the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR). However, the proposals were contradicted by counter-studies commissioned by the then management of TSK, aimed at preventing restrictions on car traffic (misleading claims that we later refuted). The IPR’s proposed measures were not approved by the Prague City Council, leaving their implementation to the initiative of individual city districts.

From one twentieth to one third

From the rejected concept, we created the core of our demands and developed a simple methodology. We assigned points to each accompanying measure based on its contribution to the positive effects of Blanka, making it easy to track progress as measures were gradually implemented. Six months after the opening, we evaluated that only 5 percent had been fulfilled: link. In the current assessment, we reach 32.4 percent. Key changes — such as limiting transit in the city center, calming certain areas, or installing light barriers — remain unrealized.

Map of accompanying measures – AutoMat, September 2025

Map of accompanying measures – AutoMat, September 2025

Overview of Implementation of Accompanying Measures

The First Five Years Were Crucial

While the implementation of accompanying measures for the Blanka Tunnel is gradually taking place, the impact on Prague’s overall car traffic paints a darker picture. In the first five years after opening, our Laboratory estimated a 4% increase in traffic volume. In reality, traffic across all Prague roads—including the Blanka Tunnel—rose by 11% in that period.

Now, after another five years, it is clear that Blanka contributed shortly after opening to overall congestion due to induced traffic. Our latest analysis of data from the Technical Road Administration shows that while traffic on the monitored network in Prague had been stagnating for several years before 2015, after Blanka opened, traffic volume grew sharply (by roughly 0.5 million vehicle-kilometers per year) until 2019, after which it has essentially plateaued. Today, traffic is 11.4% higher than before Blanka. The analysis deliberately excludes the pandemic period (December 2019–May 2023) and compares 2024 directly with 2019.

Northern Prague Remains Affected

The largest traffic increases occurred in northeastern Prague. The V Holešovičkách artery rose from 68,000 vehicles per day in 2014 to 87,000 in 2016, with growth closely mirroring traffic inside the tunnel. By 2024, traffic had reached 91,000 vehicles per day. Povltavská Street increased from 13,000 vehicles to 29,000 in 2017, continuing to rise to 32,000 in 2024.

Expectations for Blanka Were High

Driving in Prague Is No Joy

Let’s go back to 2010, when the still-active politician David Vodrážka (mayor of Prague 13 and a member of the Prague City Council for ODS) declared about Blanka: “Driving in Prague will be a joy.” The opposite has proven true. Due to traffic induction—that is, the attractiveness of high-capacity roads and the resulting increase in traffic—the situation in northern Prague has worsened. As the classic saying goes: “We told you so…”

Traffic decreases in the inner city in 2015 were mostly short-term and accounted for roughly one-fifth of the traffic volume induced by the tunnel’s opening. Since then, traffic there has slowly been increasing again, with occasional fluctuations mainly due to various maintenance closures and upgrades of the road network. The pandemic also likely played a role over the past five years.

As we noted even before the completion of the CZK 43 billion project, without restrictions on entry into central Prague and dozens of measures to mitigate road capacity, the effectiveness of this investment would be very limited.

Analysis: Traffic on the monitored TSK network during the ten years since the opening of the Blanka Tunnel

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