AGAIN RISE OF DUTCH TRAFFIC JAMS EXPECTED

Last week special Dutch Institute for mobility policies presented the results of a new research after the Dutch traffic till 2012. On the short term Dutch drivers will be in traffic jams much longer. The average travel time will increase with 29 to 46%. When the traffic policy does not change the traffic on the Dutch highways will rise with 11% to 14% in the upcoming years.

The increase of traffic on the highways that are already heavily crammed will become silted up even more. According to the director of the mobility policy research institute: 'Every percentage of traffic growth will lead to 3 to 5% loss of traffic time. So in the future car trips will take much long. On more and more places in the west of the Netherlands we see the morning and afternoon traffic jams growing towards each other. On some Dutch highways we now reached the point that there are no traffic jam free periods anymore.

The sad thing is that the institute really took all the things that influence the amount of traffic jams into account. So also the price of the oil price, the decreasing Dutch population, the lower economical growth and the construction of new highways.

Last Thursday the Dutch organised their first 'traffic jam free day'. To the Dutch traffic information service the day did not have any effect. In the morning there was a total of 268 traffic jam kilometers, normally this is 269 km. In the evening the average of traffic jam kilometers is 331 kilometer, on the traffic jam free day this was a total of 339km.

One of the Dutch car unions organised the traffic jam free day. They assumed that when 10% of the motorist would avoid the traffic jam hours the traffic jams would not occur. The director of the mobility policy research institute: In theory that is right, but many people decide to take the car because it is a traffic jam free day. Research proofs that if people do not except a traffic jam they are inclined to travel by car.

On a Dutch news site an experienced traffic jam motorist reacts: 'Thursday from Gouda to Utrecht. Travel time 2 hours and 58 minutes, with an average speed of 12 km an hour over a distance of 38 kilometers. In five years this trip never ever has taken that long and it is the traffic jam free day today.’ more features

October 20, 2008