Method for operating a traffic jam assistance system

The method involves providing medium speed in a context of congestion identification to determine a congestion probability, where the speed is determined from speed of a motor vehicle (1) and additional vehicles (6-9) provided in environment. An integral value is increased to lower critical speed when the difference speed of the medium speed lies below the lower critical speed, and is decreased to the upper critical speed when the difference of the medium speed lies above the upper speed. The integral value is unchanged when the speed lies between the upper and lower critical speeds.