In 2012, on an averaged workday, the number of kilometres driven by motor vehicles on the whole territory of Prague for 24 hours was 21.812 million km. As compared with 2011, in 2012 the traffic volume went down on average by about 0.6 %. The passenger car traffic volume went down by 0.5 % and the truck and bus traffic volume went down even by 2.0 %. But comparing the years 1990 and 2012, the traffic volume of motor vehicles in the city went up by 199 %, i.e. three times.

A complex of tunnels of the Prague ring significantly influences the traffic in the city. The control of the Prague Smíchov area also needs cooperation of a decentralised system of the traffic control MOTION, with tunnel technologies of the Prague city ring. According to traffic monitoring in 2012, the traffic intensity in Smíchov tunnels was about 24 thousand vehicles for 24 hours on workdays.

Not only due to limited space conditions in historical parts of the city, one of the main principles of the transport policy of Prague is effectively to regulate the individual car traffic in the city centre. The aim is to shift most of the traffic of the individual transport to the city public transport and to shift the truck transit traffic off the city.

Investments in transport infrastructure in Prague, especially in the Southern part of the Prague outer ring, have made it possible significantly to decrease the daily traffic intensities on the Prague Southern Ring Road (in the picture). Before opening the new part of the city ring here, the daily intensity was about 100 000 vehicles and after opening in 2012 the traffic intensity dropped to approximately a half, i.e. to about 57 800 vehicles.