On Tuesday morning it was once again busy on the highways in our province. That’s pretty common. As per ANWB, Brabant province has the most traffic jams. Will there ever be an end to the huge amounts of traffic on our highways? Traffic expert Ruud Hornman and traffic information manager from ANWB Arnoud Broekhuis don’t think so. But there are a few things we can do.
Causes
First of all: why is it always so busy on the roads in our province? Both experts cite multiple causes. Our province is a place where a lot of transport goes through. “And as long as we continue to drive and order things online, we will continue to have this problem,” said Arnoud Broekhuis from ANWB.
According to traffic expert Ruud Hornman, the use of the car always wins over public transport. When it comes to cost, comfort and travel time, the car always wins.
And what about the massive commute? Hornman: “People choose to live far from their work. An hour’s drive from your home to work is acceptable these days. But the crazy thing is that those people are the biggest complainers when they’re stuck in traffic.”
Driving behaviour
According to Hornman, it is also due to our driving behaviour. “It sometimes makes me despondent,” he said with a deep sigh. “When there’s a traffic jam, there are people who keep changing lanes and wandering through traffic because they think they’re going faster. That causes shock waves in traffic, which makes the traffic jam worse.”
The result is busy morning and evening rush hours. Can this problem ever be solved? “I don’t expect so,” said Broekhuis from ANWB. “It will only get busier in the Netherlands for the time being.” Traffic expert Hornman has given up hope. “There is nothing we can do about it,” he said. “The traffic jams never stop.”
Measures
Nevertheless, measures are being taken to reduce traffic jams on the highways. Think of the plans to widen the A58 between Tilburg and Eindhoven. This highway has been high up in the traffic jam top 10 for years. Hornman suggested though that they were not addressing the problem. “If you stick pieces of asphalt everywhere, there will only be more cars on the road.”
Arnoud Broekhuis from ANWB does not entirely agree with this. According to him, some highways really need to be widened. “You don’t have to broaden everything, just a number of bottlenecks.” These are motorways with two lanes where traffic regularly gets stuck, such as the A58. “There is a lot of transport on those roads. If a truck overtakes another truck, traffic behind it is hindered. With three lanes you have a better flow.”
Our duty
We can play our part in all of this though. According to traffic expert Hornman, every little bit helps. “Working from home more, spreading working hours better, carpooling. All in all, that would help a lot.” For example, during the corona crisis there were far fewer traffic jams due to the mandatory working from home.
Hornman is hoping for a tipping point. A moment when we say: this can no longer be done. “Maybe people will make different choices if they are then facing two hour commutes to work instead of 30 minutes. Maybe they’ll live closer to work.” But until then, we have to face these ever growing traffic jams.
Source: Omroep Brabant
Translated by: Shanthi Ramani
