Some places in the Netherlands are safer for your car than others. It will come as no surprise to you that the risk of damage or vandalism is greater in large cities than elsewhere, but Utrecht stands head and shoulders above the rest.
To start with, the entire province of Utrecht is relatively not a pleasant place for your car. The chance that your car will become the target of burglary, vandalism or theft is about 30 percent greater here than elsewhere in the Netherlands. More drunk drivers are also driving in the province of Utrecht. Zeeland motorists have it better: the risk of something happening to the car in Zeeland is just a quarter lower than average. This is apparent from Independer’s Car Risk Meter, which calculates the risk of car damage based on data from Statistics Netherlands, Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), and the National Police. The risk is determined on the basis of all registered car burglaries, car thefts, traffic accidents within built-up areas, cases of car vandalism and the drunk drivers caught in 2020. These numbers are weighed against the registered passenger cars per municipality and province.
The city of Utrecht is a ‘hotspot’
Utrecht appears to be the most unsafe province in terms of the risk of car damage. In North Brabant (+17.6 percent) and North Holland (+15.1 percent) residents also have a high risk of car damage. The city of Utrecht also appears to be relatively unsafe for motorists. In no other municipality is the risk of car damage as great as in the Dom city (+80.9 percent).
According to Jochem Hoogenboom of the municipality of Utrecht, car burglary in particular has been a major problem in Utrecht for years. “It is difficult to say why this is the case. We see that the number of car burglaries is falling the fastest in Utrecht, but is still relatively higher than in the other four major cities. Theft of car parts by organized criminal groups is an important part of this. a trend: car parts are stolen on order, preferably at locations close to the highway.” The municipality of Utrecht has adopted an integrated approach to reducing car squatting since 2016. More supervision, physical measures to prevent theft and strengthening investigations in collaboration with the police should further reduce the number of car break-ins.
South Holland also link
Not only Utrecht is doing badly. Your car is parked most unsafely in the province of South Holland, according to the Car Risk Meter. About 7,900 cases of car vandalism were registered in that province, which amounts to about a quarter of all reports in the whole of the Netherlands. Borsele in Zeeland comes out as the safest municipality. The chance of car damage here is 73.8 percent lower than elsewhere in the Netherlands. In Veere (-70.5 percent) and Tholen (-70 percent) motorists also run a much lower risk of, among other things, car burglaries, theft and vandalism.
Top 5 municipalities with the highest risk of damage
- Utrecht, Utrecht (+80.9 percent)
- Zandvoort, North Holland (+66.1 percent)
- Ouder-Amstel, North Holland (+63 percent)
- Eindhoven, North Brabant (+62.2 percent)
- Bunnik and Stichtse Vecht, Utrecht (+56.5 percent)
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl