It was much busier on the road in October than earlier this year. The Dutch went to the office more often and were more often in traffic jams, reports the National Road Traffic Data Portal (NDW). Especially when part of the A12 was impassable due to construction work, a lot of traffic was stuck. It is not yet as busy as in 2019.
The severity of traffic jams (kilometers and minutes of delay per traffic jam) increased by 32 percent in October compared to September. Compared to the same month in 2019, congestion was more than 40 percent lower. However, motorists suffered from traffic jams nine times more than in October 2020. At the end of September and the beginning of October, traffic was conspicuously congested. Traffic expert Marlous Hovestad of the NDW speaks of a ‘double effect’, because people went to the office more and part of the A12 between The Hague and Utrecht was closed for work.
In the second half of October, the autumn break resulted in a decrease in congestion pressure. That seems like a temporary effect. Hovestad only saw this decrease in the part of the country where schools were closed at that time, so in the week of October 18 in the North and Central regions and a week later in the South region. The holidays only reduce traffic jams in the morning. In the evening, many day trippers on holiday also return home, thus maintaining the hustle and bustle. The coming weeks will show how much the previously initiated increase in traffic jams will continue, now that the autumn holidays are over.
Working from home and spreading
The fact that it was not as busy as in October 2019 can logically be explained by the part of the Netherlands that still works from home a lot. There is also a bit more spread of traffic over the day. The Mobility Alliance immediately sounded the alarm at the beginning of October when the traffic was suddenly considerable again. It insists on spreading travel times and spreading them over different modes of transport in order to avoid the old situation on the road. The home working advice may also be tightened up again at Tuesday’s press conference about the corona measures.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl