In 2010, thousands of cars came to a standstill along the China National Highway 110, creating the now-famous China National Highway 110 traffic jam, which lasted 12 days and stretched over 100 kilometers.
Identifying the longest traffic jam in history is tricky because it depends on the factors considered. For example, according to Guinness World Records, the longest traffic jam ever reported occurred in 1990, on the East-West German border, and involved 18 million cars crawling to a halt. If we’re talking about distance, a traffic jam that occurred in February of this year in Uttar Pradesh could qualify as the longest ever. It reportedly stretched for 300 km across several districts of Madhya Pradesh and kept motorists crawling at a snail’s pace for about 48 hours. But, if we factor in time, there is no beating the China National Highway 110 traffic jam, which lasted for a whopping 12 days and even created a makeshift economy.