Congestion to increase by 10% 03/09/2007 00:00

3 September 2007

AMSTERDAM – By the end of this year traffic congestion will have increased by at least 10 percent. According to the Traffic Information Service (VID), the increase in the number and the length of traffic jams is unusually high.

This has been confirmed by Partick Potgraven of the VID in the AD newspaper on Saturday.

One of the main reasons for the huge rise in tailbacks is that there ‘really’ is a limit to what roads can absorb. Motorists have adopted more efficient driving styles with less than one second distance from the car in front of them.

They cannot drive any closer to one another, there are limits. Bad weather is strongly reflected in the flow of traffic because motorists then need to keep more distance.

“Major road works on important motorways also add to the congestion, according to Potgraven.

Major repairs on through roads certainly play a role. The road works being carried out on the A4 will take years and the repairs on the Hollandse Brug on the A6 is also a major operation.

Regular road works that are completed within a few weeks do not actually cause enormous problems.”

[Copyright Expatica +ANP News 2007]

Subject: Dutch news