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Traffic chaos in Heidelberg: 80,000 visitors at the castle lighting!
On September 6, 2025, the castle lighting in Heidelberg will attract up to 80,000 visitors, leading to extensive traffic measures.
Traffic chaos in Heidelberg: 80,000 visitors at the castle lighting!
On Saturday, September 6, 2025, Heidelberg Castle shone as usual in the festive sea of lights. The popular castle lighting, an annual highlight, attracted up to 80,000 visitors to the city this time. How SWR reported that the weather was excellent and the atmosphere was festive, but the massive influx caused traffic chaos that paralyzed the old town and Bismarckplatz in the early evening.
The result was long traffic jams on Bergheimer Straße, with the passage from the motorway to Ziegelhausen taking up to one and a half hours. Visitors who didn't use their car had a clear advantage because they had fewer problems. The traffic disruptions were further exacerbated by the existing permanent construction site on Dossenheimer Landstrasse as well as restrictions on the Czernyring and the Montpellier Bridge. Eppelheimer Straße was also affected due to construction work on district heating renovation.
Traffic measures in the city center
In the run-up to the event, the city of Heidelberg had already announced extensive traffic measures. These should ensure a safe and smooth experience for festival participants. Loud heidelberg.de Numerous streets were closed from 4 p.m., including the Old Bridge, which was closed to all traffic until the event. From 8:45 p.m. further closures followed, affecting access to Uferstrasse and other streets on the northern side of the Neckar. As the number of visitors increased, it was advisable to use buses and trains, as the parking garages in the old town were overcrowded early on.
The city had organized an expanded range of trips for the return journey through the Rhein-Neckar-Verkehrsgesellschaft (rnv), which made it easier for the guests to get home after the event. Despite these precautions, which were certainly helpful, the police assessed the traffic problem as to be expected, but not particularly worrying. However, there were also challenges associated with the crowds, which will be improved in the future through targeted measures as part of ongoing projects such as CroMa-PRO.
Long-term improvements through simulators
The CroMa-PRO project, as described by DLR presented, aims to optimize traffic routing and visitor management at major events using scientifically based simulations. The interaction between urban traffic and passenger flows is analyzed in detail. The findings from such simulations should help in the future to avoid traffic problems similar to those with castle lighting.
The aim is not only to improve traffic flow for the next events in Heidelberg, but also for major events such as the UEFA EURO 2024 in Düsseldorf. It will be interesting to see how these improvements in visitor guidance and traffic management are implemented in practice.