Skip to main content

Netherlands reduces road congestion by 30% in Q1 2012

According to Dutch automotive association and tourism group ANWB, there was an estimated 30 per cent year-on-year decrease in the number of traffic jams in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2012. This comes as the Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch department for infrastructure maintenance, invested more in the construction of new motorway lanes in recent years. The A2 motorway between Amsterdam and Utrecht has been expanded to ten lanes, and this reduced congestion by 25 per cent alone in 2011. In the short
April 4, 2012 Read time: 1 min
According to Dutch automotive association and tourism group 481 ANWB, there was an estimated 30 per cent year-on-year decrease in the number of traffic jams in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2012. This comes as the 4767 Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch department for infrastructure maintenance, invested more in the construction of new motorway lanes in recent years.

The A2 motorway between Amsterdam and Utrecht has been expanded to ten lanes, and this reduced congestion by 25 per cent alone in 2011. In the short term, the road widening will lead to less congestion. However, in the long term this is expected to change as people adjust to the new travel times. Moreover, people will also opt to live further away from where they work, meaning congestion will inevitably increase once again.

Related Content

  • Is Europe's Galileo project value for money?
    February 2, 2012
    Philippe Hamet discusses the progress of the European Union's Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System Project
  • Flexible, demand-based parking charges ease parking problems
    April 10, 2012
    Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews. Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking.
  • Flexible, demand-based parking charges ease parking problems
    April 10, 2012
    Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews. Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking.
  • Developing ‘next generation’ traffic control centre technology
    July 4, 2012
    The Rijkswaterstaat and Highways Agency have joined forces to investigate what the market can do to realise an idealistic vision for traffic control centre technology. Jon Masters reports One particular seminar session of the Intertraffic show in Amsterdam in March was notably over subscribed. So heavy was the press to attend that your author, making his way over late from another appointment, could not get in and found himself craning over other heads locked outside to overhear what was being said. The