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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Dutch C-ITS project publishes results
    April 13, 2017
    Researchers have published the results of a three year project on developing and testing Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) on a 17 km stretch of the A58 motorway between Eindhoven and Tilburg in the Netherlands in a live traffic situation. From early 2014 to late 2016, eleven consortia, representing 27 market partners and academic institutions, worked in collaboration with the Dutch authorities on the Shockwave Traffic Jams A58 project, with the objective of accelerating the introduction of cooperative systems in
  • Cost benefit: Toronto retimings tame traffic trauma
    July 19, 2018
    Canada’s largest city reckons that it is saving its taxpayers’ money simply by altering the way traffic lights work. David Crawford reviews Toronto’s ambitious plans to ease congestion Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis (and the fourth largest in North America), has saved its residents CAN$53 (US$42.4) for every CAN$1 (US$0.80) spent over a 2012-2016 traffic signal retiming programme, according to figures released by its Transportation Services Division. The programme covered 1,275 signals (the city’s
  • ‘Risky tailgating and speeding rife on UK motorways’
    May 22, 2014
    Six in ten UK drivers own up to risky tailgating (57 per cent) and a similar proportion break the limit by 10mph or more (60 per cent) on motorways and 70mph dual carriageways, with men by far the worst offenders, a survey by Brake and insurance company Direct Line reveals. Almost all drivers say they worry about other drivers tailgating on motorways: 95 per cent are at least occasionally concerned about vehicles too close behind them; more than four in ten (44 per cent) are concerned every, or most, tim
  • Asecap: get ready to rethink everything you know
    November 15, 2022
    How can we make our infrastructure ready for new sustainability challenges? What kind of investments are needed? And who will finance them? Tolling association Asecap has some thoughts. Geoff Hadwick reports from Lisbon