Motorists show themselves almost as much on the road as before the corona crisis, reports the Dutch Displacement Panel (NVP). The increase that was visible before the summer is continuing now that people are back from vacation. It is, however, clearly quieter during the morning rush hour and traffic spreads out more throughout the day.
Last week, the Dutch spent an average of 37 minutes a day in the car. This brings them close to 2019. Then the average during the same period was about 40 minutes. The NVP arrives at these figures by measuring the movements of a panel of 10,000 people with an app. “The morning rush hour is still less than it used to be,” says Peter van der Mede of the NVP. “But the evening rush hour is back to pre-corona levels.” In the middle of the day it is busier on the road on working days than before corona. So people take the car more spread out throughout the day.
The increasing crowds also translate into more traffic jams. Last Tuesday, the ANWB noted that the morning rush hour was the busiest in times. There is an important caveat to this: the A12 is largely closed for maintenance. That is why many people now have to take a detour via Amsterdam, where it quickly becomes crowded. However, there were also sometimes heavy traffic jams on other routes.
More to the office
The NVP sees that people increasingly showed up in the office in September. At the end of July, due to a high infection rate, the cabinet returned to the old advice to ‘work from home as much as possible, unless there is no other option’. At the end of September, the advice was worded differently: ‘work at home if possible and at the office if necessary’. Apparently it is necessary for many.
public transport
The car still seems to have a greater preference than before. There are still significantly fewer people taking the train, bus, metro or tram than before the coronavirus outbreak. The number of minutes people spend on public transport has been steadily increasing for months, but is not yet at its old level. Last week, people spent an average of more than two minutes a day on public transport, up from about four during the same period in 2019.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl