Since the tightening up of the measures to prevent further spread of the corona virus, it is clearly less pressure on the Dutch highways.
At the end of September, the road traffic was 8 percent less than in the same period last year, last week this had increased to 18 percent. This is evident from figures from Rijkswaterstaat on Thursday, which this at the request of NU.nl figured out. Rijkswaterstaat looked at the last week of September and last week and compared the figures with those of the same periods last year. In the meantime, the measures have been tightened several times, but the autumn holidays also ran through them. “By comparing these two weeks, we have a clearer picture,” said the spokesman.
The service monitors the traffic on the highways, not on other roads, such as within municipalities. Besides the fact that it has become less crowded, there are also far fewer kilometers on that highway. “The number of kilometers was 9 percent lower at the end of September and 22 percent last week.” Commuter traffic declined by 8 percentage points in that period and is now about a third lower than in a ‘normal’ year.
There is hardly any delay on the Dutch motorway network. “That is 93 percent less than last year,” says the Rijkswaterstaat spokesperson. “That applies to both rush hour and during the day.” If there are still congestion, it is due to accidents or breakdowns, but not due to crowds. There is more freight traffic on the road. “That has been the case for months.” Last week it was 11 percent more trucks on the road; that percentage has fluctuated between 10 and 15 for some time now.