Because of the corona crisis, the Dutch are a lot less and at other times on the road between home and work. This has a clear effect on the morning rush hour and therefore also on the overall amount of delays. It can be a valuable lesson.
During the ‘intelligent lockdown’, the traffic offer was very low in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the traffic on the roads has been increasing for a while, although commuters seem to be tackling it differently than before. Flitsmeister looked ahead BNR to the movements of the app users and concluded that the traditional morning rush has decreased. 4 percent of road users drive less during the traditional morning rush hours. Later in the morning and in the afternoon it is busier on the road than before. Between peak times, so during the day, it is 24 percent busier. The evening rush hour remains the same percentage in terms of traffic.
Judging by the figures, it seems that many people who still go to work start the working day at home and only then go to the office later. The fact that the evening rush hour remains relatively the same can be linked to the hypothesis that most still return home at around the same times.
An important effect of this shift in the relative traffic supply is that, according to Flitsmeister, up to ’80 percent fewer delays are observed ‘. Although it will undoubtedly also have to do with the fact that the absolute traffic supply is even lower than before, according to the people behind the popular app, it is an important lesson for when more people get into the car again. A different spread of traffic throughout the day and a slightly lower supply can have major consequences: “If we have a few percent less traffic movements, it will already have a huge impact. Corona has given us insights that we have to translate to handles to tackle this problem (files, ed.) structurally “, draws BNR on.