[NL] Roads and Motorways in the Netherlands • Autosnelwegen [Archive] - Page 2

ChrisZwolle

July 5th, 2007, 03:44 PM

Because a very small growth of traffic (like 1 - 2%) is enough to create 10 - 20% more traffic jams. Our roads are FULL. All capacity is taken, even outside rushhours (lowest hour 12.00 - 13.00 is just 10 - 20% less traffic than busiest rushhour).
And as you might know, we have a huge amount of trucks driving from/to Belgium and Germany. And most motorways are still only 2x2 when they require 2x4 lanes. You do the math.

The average motorway near cities have more traffic than the busiest roads in the Ruhr area. Even a city like mine (Zwolle) has 130.000 vehicles a day on the A28 yet the city has only 115.000 inhabitants. The A40 in the Ruhr has 140.000KFZ/tag (AADT) and that's the busiest Autobahn in Western Germany.

Some motorways have over 200.000 vehicles a day and have only 2x3 lanes. So they are jammed most of the time.
Another problem are bridges. As you know we are a flat country with lots of canals and stuff. Most of them have removable bridges in the motorway, dating back from the 60/70's. But they are still in operation, and sometimes even open in rushhours. Within 10 minutes you have like 15km of traffic jam behind it.

So our motorwayinfrastructure isn't outdated, but the capacity of them is.

eusebius

July 7th, 2007, 09:36 AM

That is nonsense. On German roads there are an equal number of fatalities/accidents, but they have generally a 20 - 40km/h higher speed limit, or even no speed limit.
Go live in Germany then! You're obsessed and uncapable of reasoning. Ask a surgeon how much difference speed limits make.

ChrisZwolle

July 7th, 2007, 11:46 AM

I hope to go to the new A37 in a few hours. See if i can make some pics :)

ChrisZwolle

July 7th, 2007, 03:55 PM

A37 - B402 Hoogeveen - Meppen
This is the A37, the part Hoogeveen - Interchange Holsloot is one of the most rural motorways in the Netherlands, and also hasn't got a centrer divider or crash barrier. This is very uncommon in the Netherlands. The eastern section from Holsloot to the German border near Zwartemeer is nearing completion. I took this drive because they say the eastbound lanes were completed, but that's just not true.

70 pics, Picasa Webalbum (http://picasaweb.google.nl/ASWchris/A37B402HoogeveenMeppen)

http://i15.tinypic.com/66y7vj8.png

ChrisZwolle

July 7th, 2007, 03:57 PM

B402 Meppen - Hoogeveen
And backwards...

57 pics, Picasa Webalbum (http://picasaweb.google.nl/ASWchris/B402A37MeppenHoogeveen)

http://i9.tinypic.com/4u2rgd0.png

Verso

July 7th, 2007, 07:17 PM

^^ This is like driving through US prairies.

Alex Von Königsberg

July 8th, 2007, 07:57 AM

Dude, you need to see real US prairies ;)

mgk920

July 8th, 2007, 05:13 PM

I agree, it looks a lot more like what one would find driving the Indiana Toll Road/Ohio Turnpike eastward from I-94 at Gary, IN to about the I-90 split at Lorain, OH. It also looks much like the new US 10 freeway/expressway for about 50-60 km west from US 41 at Appleton. It reminds me a lot of the OH 2 freeway in the Port Clinton, OH area, too.

The North American 'prairies' are a semi-arid area and much of it is pool-table flat to the horizon, almost freakish to drive through.

Mike

Verso

July 8th, 2007, 07:15 PM

It was the nearest correlation, looking at the middle grass. :D

CborG

July 9th, 2007, 11:20 AM

Pics of the demolition of an old viaduct on the Eindhoven beltway (A2) they had to completely close off the Highway, which was announced all over the country 2 weeks before.
http://www.eindhovensdagblad.nl/multimedia/archive/00513/a2_2_513320b.jpg

It says something like; Stay away from Eindhoven this weekend!:D

Pics by PW100 saturday 07-07-07:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9955-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9955-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9958-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9958-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9960-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9960-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9961-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9961-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9963-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9963-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9967-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9967-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9968-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9968-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9969-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9969-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9975-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9975-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9976-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9976-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/Thumps%20400/IMG_9978-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/07-07-07/IMG_9978-800.jpg)

And the day after that, sunday, the viaduct was gone:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0024-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0024-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0025-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0025-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0026-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0026-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0028-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0028-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0029-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0029-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0030-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0030-800.jpg)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0033-400.jpg (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A2%20Eindhoven/IMG_0033-800.jpg)

ChrisZwolle

July 11th, 2007, 10:54 AM

N302 Hoorn - Kootwijk

Hoorn - Enkhuizen - Lelystad - Harderwijk - Kootwijk

This is one of the longest national roads in The Netherlands, and also one of the most varied ones. You go through flat polders, over a 28km long dam, over lakes, and through the foresty Veluwe hills. It connects the A7 with the A1, and is one of the better build-out roads in NL.

180 pics, Picasa webalbum (http://picasaweb.google.nl/ASWchris/N302HoornKootwijk101km)

http://i10.tinypic.com/4u0clsl.png

Verso

July 11th, 2007, 04:59 PM

^ Must be a great feeling, driving over the dam. :cheers:

ChrisZwolle

July 11th, 2007, 06:50 PM

^ Must be a great feeling, driving over the dam. :cheers:

Yeah i drove 120 km/h there. It felt like 40km/h. So long straight out. The limit is 100 though.

Verso

July 11th, 2007, 07:00 PM

Do you have any ground photos of Afsluitdijk?

CborG

July 11th, 2007, 08:11 PM

^^Search at google for 'afsluitdijk' and you'll find many pics, like this one:

http://souvenirholland.com/IMG_0591.JPG

:cheers:

Verso

July 11th, 2007, 08:15 PM

^^ I thought Chris had some of his own. :D

ChrisZwolle

July 11th, 2007, 09:03 PM

^^ I thought Chris had some of his own. :D

However it's quite close to my home (like 130km), i don't drive there often. Last time was 1,5 year ago, didn't made pics then.

But you mean something like this;

http://www.roadpics.net/nl/A7/A7N/22.jpg

http://www.roadpics.net/nl/A7/A7N/23.jpg

http://www.roadpics.net/nl/A7/A7N/24.jpg

Verso

July 11th, 2007, 10:16 PM

^^ Exactly. :cheers:

KIWIKAAS

July 18th, 2007, 01:31 AM

Sorry for the small size of the images (had my phone-camera on the wrong setting unfortunately)

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/2082/photo0202px7.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6120/photo0203oy2.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/520/photo0205dv9.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/56/photo0206ia3.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2497/photo0207of0.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8454/photo0208dw4.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6025/photo0209pv0.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1183/photo0210yt7.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2061/photo0211sf4.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6572/photo0212zj0.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9068/photo0213fa2.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/3759/photo0214zr8.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6984/photo0215yw1.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/7849/photo0216oe9.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/4448/photo0217zp5.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9173/photo0218ea8.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2544/photo0219sc9.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2817/photo0220sd9.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/9932/photo0221au3.jpghttp://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1559/photo0222xo5.jpg

ChrisZwolle

July 18th, 2007, 10:07 AM

ChrisZwolle

July 18th, 2007, 10:17 AM

Serious accidents this morning. I'll try to translate some:

N9 closed after serious accident with truck

The N9 Alkmaar - Den Helder was closed this morning in both directions after an accident near St Maartenszee. A car, of which driver presumably fell asleep, got onto the opposite lane. The driver of the upcoming truck tried to avoid the car, and flipped over.

The truck crashed onto a van, which caught fire. The driver of the van died in this accident. The ravage on the N9 is huge, and traffic is being detoured locally. 4 more people were injured, 2 of them seriously.
The N9 will be closed the entire morning.

Chaos on interchange Vaanplein after accident

An accident caused chaos on the A15 south of Rotterdam, between interchange Vaanplein and exit Rhoon. 20 cars and a truck were involved in the accident. As far as known, only one person were injured. There is a lot of damage on the site.

Nephasto

July 19th, 2007, 01:47 AM

The A4 is one of the most diverse motorways in terms of appearing. It has been planned for 40 years between Delft and Schiedam, has 2x3 lanes near Den Haag and Leiden, and goes back in an extremely narrow aquaduct north of Leiden. Then, after interchange Burgerveen, the road 2x5 lanes wide, the widest one-piece road (no parallels) in the Netherlands.

Widest one-piece (one carriageway) road (2x5) in the Netherlands and probably in Europe (apart from Moscow's MKAD).
I know that for example in Spain you can't build 2x5 roads... You would have to do something like 2+3+3+2, because there's a maximum of 4 lanes per carriageway.

This obviously doesn't count acceleracion/deceleracion lanes and near junctions points, etc...

Paulie Walnuts

July 22nd, 2007, 12:48 PM

A4 near Schiphol Airport

http://www.co2-servicepunt.nl/cmsmadesimple/uploads/images/Projecten/snelweg.bmp

http://www.trafficlinq.nl/findpictures/data/media/58/w_030212_020b.jpg

http://www.borisvanderham.nl/snelweg.jpg

Also found this one, the A1 near Amsterdam:

http://www.pabi.nl/website/extimages/p_foto_070_ezg_1.jpg

ChrisZwolle

July 25th, 2007, 02:05 PM

DAMMIT.

Widening of the A4 between Interchange Burgerveen and Leiden has been cancelled by the Council of State :bash:

Based on the idea that 3 lanes of flowing traffic gives worse pollution than continuous traffic jams now with 2 lanes, the widening has been cancelled.

That means the only N-S motorway in the Randstad, connecting over 7 million people and the three biggest cities remains only 2x2 lanes. :ohno:

ChrisZwolle

July 25th, 2007, 02:18 PM

Nephasto

July 25th, 2007, 11:43 PM

:eek:

CborG

July 27th, 2007, 10:53 PM

A small piece of brand new shiny A73 has just been opened!

Tegelen - Beesel immiddels half af

http://members.home.nl/jeroen.vossen/beesel1.jpg
http://members.home.nl/jeroen.vossen/beesel2.jpg
http://members.home.nl/jeroen.vossen/beesel3.jpg
http://members.home.nl/jeroen.vossen/beesel4.jpg

Alex Von Königsberg

July 28th, 2007, 02:34 AM

Oh, come on - only 70 km/h?? :ohno: I knew Holland had the lowest speed limits in EU, but this is ridiculous. Or maybe there is a construction area ahead?

CborG

July 28th, 2007, 02:43 AM

^^That 70 limit is, like you said, because of construction works ahead. If you look closely at the last pic you can see a yellow sign saying that only one lane will be available further on. The motorway is not totally completed yet.

The blue line on this map is the completed part, they are still working on the rest of the road, red lines. I believe that at the end of 2008 the works will be completed
http://maps.google.nl/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=nl&msa=0&msid=107101594904615898080.000436481da9fff2beffd&ll=51.260626,6.043167&spn=0.287032,0.55481&z=11&om=1

ZeTaCy

July 28th, 2007, 04:38 PM

To underline the importance of this motorway, the A4 immediatly serves 2.761.000 inhabitants, and over 6 million in the entire region. The Schiphol airport, one of the busiest in the world (12th) is immediatly on the A4 motorway.

The A4 has officially the most traffic jams in the Netherlands, near the aquaduct which is only 2x2 lanes with no emergency lanes.

This is really ridiculous.

If they seriously dont change their additude towards the inhabitants of the Netherlands i'll try to get 6 trucks and stand still on the A4. We will get traffic jams the entire day and the government will lose so much money that they WILL HAVE TO FIX IT!!!!

EDIT:

From the official traffic information service:

number 1:

320989kmmin in 2006
A4 between Amsterdam -> Delft
Toplocation: Zoeterwoude-Rijndijk
44039kmmins in 2005

1 kilometerminute = 1kilometer of trafficjam for 1 minute so 1km for 10minutes creates 10kmmins

CborG

July 28th, 2007, 10:06 PM

Some various dutch motorway junctions. I made them by stitching images from Virtual Earth together.

-edit-

They are now further down:cheers:

ChrisZwolle

July 28th, 2007, 10:19 PM

Great work, Rick! These views are way better than the standard Google Earth views.

Castle_Bravo

July 28th, 2007, 11:24 PM

Great job!

Can you post a picture of the A2xA12 junction?

lpioe

July 29th, 2007, 12:10 AM

Great job indeed.

Is that a motorway junction :?
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8660/julianapleinkleinwj8.jpg

ChrisZwolle

July 29th, 2007, 12:14 AM

Yes, it is interchange Julianaplein.

However, technically it can't be called interchange. on the right is the A28 motorway, leading to Zwolle and Utrecht. On the left a local road leading into central Groningen.
On the bottom; the N7, which fast become A7 to Leeuwarden and Amsterdam.
On above side; the N7, which become A7 after 6 or 7 km, to Oldenburg and Bremen in Germany, however the German border is still 60km away.

This is the busiest traffic light crossing in the Netherlands, over 100.000 vehicles cross these lights daily.

CborG

July 29th, 2007, 01:24 AM

Great job!

Can you post a picture of the A2xA12 junction?

Thanks!:)

You mean Oudenrijn? I tried to stitch it together but it is too large and the problem with VE is that the images you see all differ from each other by the means of height, angle and such. one image is about 2000x1500 pixels and all next to each other you get the feeling that it is one continuous picture but it's not. If i would show you oudenrijn the way like I made the other junctions, you would get half a junction because it's not centered excactly in the middle of one photo.
It's the same with some other junctions, too bad actually, because there can never be a complete overview of all the dutch junction that way.:ohno:

Shukie

July 29th, 2007, 04:57 AM

Great stuff, thanks for those pictures.

ZeTaCy

July 29th, 2007, 06:57 PM

Great pictures! Taking a photo of Kleinpolderplein without traffic jams is very rare, but looks AWESOME!

I think we should get more highways if we are denied expanding the existing roads!

CborG

July 30th, 2007, 01:05 AM

-edit- See below

CborG

July 30th, 2007, 08:55 AM

-edit-

CborG

July 30th, 2007, 11:02 AM

-edit-

ZeTaCy

July 30th, 2007, 12:32 PM

@CborG

Are they constructing more lanes @ vaanplein? I still see overheads that dont have any connection with the highways yet.

ChrisZwolle

July 30th, 2007, 04:01 PM

^^ That's because of the previous configuration of interchange Vaanplein. The A15 will be widened though.

CborG

July 30th, 2007, 11:18 PM

A map with the old configuration drawn over the current one:

http://maps.google.nl/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=k&hl=nl&msa=0&ll=51.865336,4.516025&spn=0.008864,0.017338&z=16&om=1&msid=107101594904615898080.00043681424e8234e7a79

Wallaroo

August 3rd, 2007, 03:10 PM

---

CborG

August 3rd, 2007, 03:12 PM

^^:crazy: That is Danmark, not the Netherlands. Try to take a look in an atlas next time..

CborG

August 3rd, 2007, 03:14 PM

Hmm, forgot to post the adapted view here too:

Almere, A6xA27:

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/3240/knpalmerea27klkw3.jpg

Beekbergen, A1xA50:

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8018/beekbergenkleinzn0.jpg

Drachten, A7xN31:

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1969/drachtenkleinus2.jpg

Europaplein (M'tricht): A2xN2

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/233/europapleinkleinpp1.jpg

Gouwe, A12xA20:

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2706/gouwekleincv1.jpg

de Hogt, A2xA67:

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/8135/dehogtkleinph6.jpg

Julianaplein, A7xA28:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2845/julianapleinkleintm6.jpg

Kerensheide, A2xA76:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/8228/kerensheidekleinbe0.jpg

Kethelplein, A4xA20:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6954/kethelpleinkleinhb1.jpg

Kleinpolderplein, A13xA20:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7388/kleinpolderplein2kleinve4.jpg

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2034/kleinpolderpleinkleinxp5.jpg

Kruisdonk, A2xA79:

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/746/kruisdonkkleinsh7.jpg

Leenderheide A2xA67:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4451/leenderheidekleinms2.jpg

Maanderbroek, A12xA30:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8637/maanderbroekkleintb1.jpg

Neerbosch, A73x?:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/75/neerboschklxa0.jpg

Oudenrijn, in een vierluik, A2xA12:

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2662/oudenrijnnwkleinna5.jpghttp://img502.imageshack.us/img502/9987/oudenrijnnokleinay7.jpghttp://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6591/oudenrijnzwkleinqt9.jpghttp://img528.imageshack.us/img528/33/oudenrijnzokleinoa3.jpg

Prins Clausplein, A4xA12:

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1482/prinsclauspleinklnk7.jpg

Ridderkerk Noord, A15xA16:

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/1848/rotterdamriddersterme0.jpg

Rijnsweerd, A27xA28:

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/1613/rijnsweerdkleincm0.jpg

de Stok, A17xA58:

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5199/destokkleinbx6.jpg

Terbregseplein, A16xA20:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9755/terbregsepleinkleinma9.jpg

Vaanplein, A15xA29:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/1489/vaanpleinkleinde1.jpg

Velperbroek, A12xA348:

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/9283/velperbroekkleinlw0.jpg

Waalsdorperplein, N14xN44:

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/318/kruispuntn14n44kleinrz0.jpg

Waterberg, A12xA50:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/3088/waterbergkleinhr4.jpg

Zaarderheiken, A67xA73:

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/3945/zaarderheikenkleinav9.jpg

Zoomland, A4xA58:

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7092/zoomlandkleinaq6.jpg

-----

CborG

August 4th, 2007, 09:07 AM

Ridderkerk-south, A15xA16:

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7523/ridderkerkzuidzuidzijdelo8.jpg

http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/9210/ridderkerkzuidnoordzijdov3.jpg

Europaplein (Groningen) N7xA7:

(This junction is soon to be replaced by a new junction, which is U/C now, further east)
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/3489/europapleingroningenkletf8.jpg

ChrisZwolle

August 4th, 2007, 09:16 AM

[NL] Mr.Mit. [NL]

August 9th, 2007, 11:32 PM

The ones in my signature are very awesome videos!!

V V V V

Martuh

August 10th, 2007, 12:03 AM

Unfortunately, traffic jams is an international crisis and no amount of highway upgrades is going to get rid of them.

Well in Holland things are a little different. The four largest cities (Big-4) are about 50 km from eachother, in a turned square:

--------Amsterdam----
-----------------------
The Hague----Utrecht-
-----------------------
----Rotterdam---------

Something like that.

Some couple of years (sixties, seventies) after WWII, Dutch economy was booming. People who gained money were suburbanizing and moved to villages nearby the Big-4. Most of these villages were in the middle of the Big-4, which was semi-nature but mostly countryside. The Dutch government was afraid that this 'Green Heart' would be completely built full, and pointed 'growcores', villages outside the Big-4, that could grow into middle-size cities. The main idea was that the people would move and thus also the companies. The people moved to these growcores, however, the companies didn't. Simple cause-effect: huge traffic jams between the growcores and the Big-4.

I'm working on a masterplan myself, as a future urban planning student (my study starts next month) to build a S-bahn type of network in the whole Randstad to finally solve this problem.

SmarterChild

August 10th, 2007, 12:44 AM

The section 4x4 in Interchange Ridderkerk (that interchange spans over 3km) are actually 2 adjacent motorways; the A15 and A16.

It's something different than a double number on a motorway, here are physically 2 motorways next to eachother.

I like this interchange a lot. For some reason riding on it is an amazing feeling - I can't quite describe this feeling. :nuts: :lol:

Is there more interchanges like this in the NL?

CborG

August 10th, 2007, 05:21 AM

^^You mean the wideness of the roads or the size of the junction?
There is another junction, Rottepolderplein, which actually concists of 3 separate junctions very close to each other. The A9, A205, A200 and N205 meet each other here.

http://maps.google.nl/maps?ll=52.3767,4.705024&spn=0.024469,0.058365&t=k&z=14&om=1

A junction with roads a wide as near Ridderkerk can be found near the Hague, between Ypenburg and Prins Clausplein:

http://maps.google.nl/maps?ll=52.050577,4.361572&spn=0.003081,0.007296&t=k&z=17&om=1

Also near schiphol, junction de Hoek:

http://maps.google.nl/maps?ll=52.288887,4.728606&spn=0.003065,0.007296&t=k&z=17&om=1

SmarterChild

August 11th, 2007, 04:26 AM

ZeTaCy

August 12th, 2007, 04:23 PM

Well in Holland things are a little different. The four largest cities (Big-4) are about 50 km from eachother, in a turned square:

--------Amsterdam----
-----------------------
The Hague----Utrecht-
-----------------------
----Rotterdam---------

Something like that.

Some couple of years (sixties, seventies) after WWII, Dutch economy was booming. People who gained money were suburbanizing and moved to villages nearby the Big-4. Most of these villages were in the middle of the Big-4, which was semi-nature but mostly countryside. The Dutch government was afraid that this 'Green Heart' would be completely built full, and pointed 'growcores', villages outside the Big-4, that could grow into middle-size cities. The main idea was that the people would move and thus also the companies. The people moved to these growcores, however, the companies didn't. Simple cause-effect: huge traffic jams between the growcores and the Big-4.

I'm working on a masterplan myself, as a future urban planning student (my study starts next month) to build a S-bahn type of network in the whole Randstad to finally solve this problem.

Good luck kicking some environmentalists ass!

CborG

August 16th, 2007, 12:53 PM

Another highway nearing completion!!:banana:

The A35 near Almelo:

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u81/Taurus1978/Aanleg%20A35/IMG_0596.jpg
Photo by Taurus

We're waiting for the rest to open:

http://i9.tinypic.com/6bcr3u9.jpg
Photo by Chris

rick1016

August 16th, 2007, 01:03 PM

Nice looking highway.

Joshapd

August 16th, 2007, 01:55 PM

ChrisZwolle

August 16th, 2007, 04:26 PM

Maybe you should mention in your PWS, there hasn't been much capacity adding since 1985, while population was growing by 2 million since then.

Joshapd

August 16th, 2007, 05:10 PM

You mean the highways? Because I think I'll focus more on the PT and one of my points will be that a S-Bahn kind of network which also connect different bigger cities (no intercity) will contribute to PT use. But I hardly done anytinhg already I still have almost a year ;) but thanks anyway.

ChrisZwolle

August 16th, 2007, 08:15 PM

If your goal is to "I'll try to find out if connecting the different urbannetworks (Randstadrail etc.) will help against the traffic problem on the road."

For that, you need some road investigation too. The history section www.autosnelwegen.nl is very extensive, and could be very useful.

But i already know what my conclusion would be;

Dutch drivers don't find PT as a good alternative. You have to put billions and billions to a extremely less cost-effective PT to make PT a good alternative. Meanwhile, it is much cheaper and more efficient, to just add more capacity to the roads.

Now, for 90% of the car travels, PT is just not a good alternative, and for like 70 - 80% it will never be. So you have to make choices, spending billions on a PT system that is a little better, or spend a few billions in roadwidening, and immediatly get positive results.

LtBk

August 17th, 2007, 04:06 AM

ChrisZwolle

August 17th, 2007, 08:37 AM

Because, the Randstad (where most of the PT is) is not build-up in the same way as other European cities. Its less dense, making PT just inefficient. Making PT a success in Berlin, Paris or Madrid, doesn't say it is a success in the Randstad, because the circumstances are competely different. You can't just compare the Ruhr area or Barcelona with the Randstad.

Then, you have 2 options; spend more billions in PT, without noticing much effect to the traffic jams (as is happening in the last 2 decades), or just add some more lanes to the mostly only 2x2 lane motorways in this 7 million conurbation. You'll see immediatly results.

The last decade, the budget for PT was about twice as high as for motorways, although the FAR majority of miles travelled are on the motorways. So they put billions and billions each year on PT, and you would think traffic jams will decrease, but in fact, it's the opposite, traffic jams rise for years in a row with 10% annually.

Koesj

August 17th, 2007, 04:13 PM

And for the Randstad conurbation the simple fact is that the most viable high-density PT lines are already operating about as efficiently as possible. Tell us how we might operate a PT system in an extremely sub-urbanised and decentralised environment and we'll stop yapping about much-needed road widening and a strengthening of our highway network :)

ChrisZwolle

August 27th, 2007, 07:31 PM

The Dutch minister of DOT (Department of Transportation) Camiel Eurlings has confirmed the minutes of traffic jam in the first half of 2007 was 7,8 million traffic jam minutes. That's an increase of 17% compared to the first half of 2006.

The worst traffic jams where in the 2nd quarter at the detourroutes of the closed A2 near Den Bosch, because of roadworks along the Meusebridge.

ChrisZwolle

September 10th, 2007, 08:47 PM

2 accidents this morning shows the vulnerability of our freeway system.

At 5.45 am 6 cars collided on the A2 near Utrecht-Centrum one of the 3 lanes had to be closed. By 6.45 am the traffic jam was 16 km or 10 miles long. The closure of the lane was soon over, and by 7 am, all lanes were free for traffic. But because of the huge amount of traffic, by 7.30 am the traffic jam was 36km or 22 miles long. The traffic jam lasted until 11 am.

Another accident in the region completed the gridlock, on the A15 between exits Leerdam and Arkel, 6 trucks collided around 8 am. A huge ravage was the result. The whole freeway had to be closed towards Rotterdam. The result was a traffic jam of 16km or 10 miles, but that's not extraordinary, but people were standing there until 11.30 am. Most people missed half of the workday.

-----

Our freeway system is so much overcrowded, one short simple accident can gridlock an entire region, or sometimes a quarter of the country.

This is not rare, it happens everyday...

OettingerCroat

September 11th, 2007, 08:42 AM

one of the best networks in the world :cheers:

ChrisZwolle

September 11th, 2007, 06:06 PM

Severe delays in Southern Holland province.

An accident this morning on the A12 near Voorburg in the direction of The Hague caused severe delays on motorways in the region.
The exit lane of Voorburg was closed, and caused a traffic jam of 24 kilometer. The entire A13 from Rotterdam to The Hague was jammed over it´s 15km length. The A4 was also jammed for a serious length, causing an entire gridlock in the region. Delays were far over an hour.

ChrisZwolle

September 13th, 2007, 08:52 AM

Gridlock in Utrecht province

Around 16.00 hours, on the A2 between Utrecht and Amsterdam, a truck carrying a mobile crane flipped over near Abcoude. All 3 lanes towards Amsterdam where blocked for a long time, causing a huge traffic gridlock in the entire region. The traffic was stuck over 15km behind the accident, but because this accident happened during rushhour, a 35km long traffic jam existed on the detourroute, the A27 motorway along the eastern side of Utrecht. After a serious accident on the N201 national road, the entire region came to a standstill, the A1, A2, A9, A10, A12 and A27 where all completely jammed. Over 100 kilometer of traffic jam existed because of this accident.

Around 8 am, an accident with 2 trucks on the A15 towards Nijmegen near Tiel happened, causing one of the truck to caught fire. The whole road was blocked, the traffic jam wasn't that long, about 12km, but lasted over 10 hours. Around 19.00 hours, the road was opened to traffic. This closure on the main transport axis A15 causes a lot of truck to detour over the A12, which was the scene of many short traffic jams because of the extra traffic.

http://i11.tinypic.com/4q39cns.jpg
Truck on fire on the A15 motorway near Tiel.

KIWIKAAS

September 13th, 2007, 02:59 PM

^^
If I read your reports it makes me think that maybe they need to tighten up rules and penalties even more. Despite all the driver education people are obviously still not driving responsibly. Let's face it, all the accidents you're mentioning here are more than likely caused by driver fault. Often ''proffessional'' drivers that see it as a birth right to disobey the rules and of course all the other idiots out there.

ChrisZwolle

September 13th, 2007, 03:10 PM

^^ That's not entirely true. The Netherlands is one of the safest countries in the world to drive in. But with AADT up to 180.000 accidents just do happen. Especially with the load of trucks we are dealing with. Sometimes the right lane is more a truck lane as a driving lane.

The bad thing is, that the government is more aimed at (automated) speeding checks, rather than tailgating or traffic patrols. It's much more likely you'll get a ticket for 10km/h too fast, than for tailgating the whole year.

CborG

September 14th, 2007, 02:00 PM

The construction of a small piece of A4 motorway near Bergen op Zoom is getting more visible, viaducts are being constructed:

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3438403.jpg
by: M.J.Boluijt (Panoramio.com)

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8360/a4halsterensl2.png

This stretch is supposed to bypass a village to relief its centre from the heavy traffic.

CborG

September 14th, 2007, 02:06 PM

Hopefully I will live long enough to see the whole A4 completed from Amsterdam to Antwerp:nuts:

CborG

September 14th, 2007, 02:22 PM

Some nice aireals of the recently widened A4 and the new HSL, 20km south of Amsterdam:

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-352-01.jpg

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-348-01.jpg

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-339-01.jpg

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-329-01.jpg

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-325-01.jpg

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-323-01.jpg

ChrisZwolle

September 14th, 2007, 04:55 PM

Rebasepoiss

September 14th, 2007, 05:49 PM

^^ A motorway is like a dozen times noisier than a 300km/h train.

Jeroen669

September 14th, 2007, 06:58 PM

^^ I rather live next to a motorway than next to a busy railway. Be sure it makes a lot of noise with such speeds. That's nothing comparing to the constant noise of traffic driving around 100km/h. (if traffic even drives, the A4 at Leiden is known to be one of the most jammed motorways in Holland) The section shown on the photo's is also planned to be the busiest section: 6 trains per hour in each direction, so 12 trains per hour. I wish them luck...

ChrisZwolle

September 14th, 2007, 07:25 PM

^^ A motorway is like a dozen times noisier than a 300km/h train.

Nope, a railway line is easily 70 - 80 dB(A). Motorways are mostly not over 60 dB(A) because we use ZOAB (PAC) asphalt, which is noise-reducing.

Rebasepoiss

September 14th, 2007, 07:32 PM

^^Ok, I'm used to quite "loud" asphalt here, but I still think that a constant but lower noise causes more stress and tiredness than a railway line that is louder. Although, I personally don't see a problem with building motorways or railways close to houses when there is a proper noise barrier.

RoadUser

September 16th, 2007, 10:58 AM

http://www.rijkswega4.nl/a4-midden/files/D0606-348-01.jpg

I never get this kind of stuff. Such buildings near a freeway are out of the question because of noise pollution (i work extensive with this stuff), but some 300km/h railway is allowed?

Where would a train be able to do 300km/h in Holland?

The regular trains there seem to stop at a major city about every 10 minutes. Where would it be able to build up any speed?

CborG

September 16th, 2007, 11:27 AM

Between Amsterdam and Antwerp there are only 2 stops; Rotterdam and Schiphol. Antwerp-Rotterdam is roughly 90km and Rotterdam-Schiphol is almost 50km. So 300km/h is very possible, although not for much longer than 15-20 minutes.

RoadUser

September 16th, 2007, 02:20 PM

ChrisZwolle

September 17th, 2007, 07:31 PM

Long traffic jams because of rain

Continuous rainshowers caused a lot of traffic jams in the central part of the Netherlands. Most motorways in the central part of the Netherlands were jammed, 80 traffic jams and 370km of queue lasted the morning, while the morningrushhour continued into eveningrushhour, with over 60 traffic jams and 340km of queue.

In normal circumstances, Dutch drivers tend to keep less than a second distance to the next car. (almost tailgating). But in rain, drivers tends to keep a more safe distance, creating a lot of extra and longer traffic jams. Although 300 - 400km of jam is pretty normal, sometimes it's over 600km of queue. During winter time with unexpected snow, traffic jams grow to a whopping 950km of queue at peak.

x-type

September 17th, 2007, 09:01 PM

yuotalk about trains - what is max speed of Thalys in the Netherlands?

ChrisZwolle

September 17th, 2007, 09:04 PM

Now 160km/h (on a very short stretch, mostly 120/140km/h), in the future 300km/h.

x-type

September 17th, 2007, 09:13 PM

i thought they run up tp 300 as in France!:uh: do you know for Belgium?
btw, i guess the same situation is with ICE lines, right?

ChrisZwolle

September 17th, 2007, 09:21 PM

I don't know, this is also a bit offtopic ;)

Jeroen669

September 17th, 2007, 09:27 PM

We don't have High Speed Rail systems in use yet. Most of the city-connecting rail network is 130-140 km/h. (there are some stretches 160km/h, but most trains (in fact I thought all of them, except the Thalys) don't have the right security for that). On local lines it differs from 80 to 130 km/h.

On the new HSL-stretch I thougt it would become 250km/h on the stretch Rotterdam - Schiphol and 300 km/h between Rotterdam and Antwerp.

ChrisZwolle

September 18th, 2007, 09:09 AM

Accident cloggs up Rotterdam

An accident this morning caused a gridlock in a large region around Rotterdam. The accident happened on the A16 at the Van Brienenoord bridge across the Meuse river, causing a 12km long queue behind it, but also blocking other motorways, so an 20km long queue existed on the A15 from Gorinchem, and while over 20km split in 3 qeues blocked the A20 motorway at the nothern side of Rotterdam. The A15 south of Rotterdam jammed aswell, and a 12km long queue existed on the A29, making the gridlock complete in the Rotterdam region. The A4 queued as well, on the western side of Rotterdam. Over 70km of queue was the result around 8.30 am because of this single accident.

Total queus reached 80 traffic jams and 370km of queue

One simple accident.... Entire region gridlocked.:bash:

ChrisZwolle

September 18th, 2007, 06:01 PM

A16 again closed due to accident

At the same point as this morning, a truck turned over just after the Brienenoord Bridge across the Meuse river, this time in the anti-rushhour direction. It still caused long traffic jams, a 10km long traffic jam was behind it, but in the southbound direction, a traffic jam formed that lasted on the A20 and A13 motorway, causing over 40km of queue related to this accident.

At the same time, 2 lanes had to be closed in the Botlektunnel on the almost adjacent A15 motorway, where an accident took place, completing the traffic chaos around the city.

Other long queues took place at the A2, where a 30km long traffic jam formed on the western side of Utrecht, southbound, on the A28, an accident occured just north of Zwolle, causing 20km of queue northbound. On the A50, the usual 18km long queue existed between Interchange Grijsoord and Interchange Ewijk.

Truck accidents are really messing up EVERY rushhour, which now can be called half the morning and half the afternoon rushhours. :ohno:

Jeroen669

September 18th, 2007, 07:03 PM

What would be the reason of such a load of accidents the last time?

xlchris

September 18th, 2007, 08:05 PM

^^ Many constructions!?

ChrisZwolle

September 18th, 2007, 08:40 PM

No, the load of trucks. It's just too much, and accidents happen. The more traffic, the more accidents, and the more impact they have. The A16 is also the busiest Dutch motorway, having an AADT of 250.000.

If you close one motorway, the detourroute will be jammed over tens of kilometers, all motorways have reached capacity in the Netherlands, also outside of rushhours.

Let me explain how it goes;
This is a schematic view of the motorways around Utrecht.
http://i7.tinypic.com/638fm87.png

First, on the A2, an accident occurs. Total road closure. Inital, a traffic jam grows behind the accident, traffic has nowhere to go.
Second, the traffic jam grows, blocking the A12 traffic that wants to go on the A2 (logic route).
The traffic jam of the A2 keeps growing, blocking also the A27, meanwhile, the traffic jam on the A12 keeps also growing, blocking A27 traffic to the A12.

In meantime, the A27 gets "promoted" to detour route of A2 traffic towards the north. The A27 is normally very busy, and can't handle all that traffic. The entire detourroute gets jammed.

But let's not forget the A12 traffic jam, which blocks the southbound A27 direction, so a traffic jam exist in both directions along the A27, blocking also the A28 traffic that has to go on the A27.

Now all roads in the region are jammed, and because no traffic is moving anymore, local roads to the motorways gets jammed too, causing a gridlock in the entire region.

This kind of stuff happens within 30 - 60 minutes after the accident within rushhours. The amount of traffic is huge, and the capacity is way too low for all that traffic.

I didn't even mention the soutbound A2 traffic jam because of people looking at the accident, causing traffic jams on the A9 and A10 motorways (not shown on the map).

So one single accident during rushhour (the worst is if they happen just after the start of rushhour), can blackout an entire province, and sometimes even larger areas as that, not to mention when an accident occurs on the detourroute (this happens very often, having two major motorways out of service).

People gets delayed hours and hours, and so is transportation, where the Dutch economy is based on. You can image what consequences this have to the Dutch transport economy if it happens every day. Not to mention the much more pollution you'll get from traffic jams.

LtBk

September 19th, 2007, 05:13 AM

You guys depend too much on auto transportion .

ChrisZwolle

September 19th, 2007, 10:56 AM

You guys depend too much on auto transportion .

Not necessarily, we live with 16,5 million people on the size of some American medium-sized counties. Public transportation is very crowded too during rushhour. It's not like that's a good alternative.

Where American freeways have 4 - 5 lanes per direction in urban areas, we have to do it with 2 or maybe 3 per direction, with often almost the same high numbers of traffic. We just have a road network, which is motorway-wise very good, but it still has the capacity of 1980, but we don't live in 1980 anymore, our population has grown with 2,5 million since then, and the government builds "new cities" away from the centers where work take place, hence the commute. The average car-commute is 25km (15 miles). But our N-road network is absolutely not an alternative, and sometimes even non-existing.

Most rivercrossings are only possible via motorway. Across the Waal rivier, on the entire length from Germany to the Coast, there are 8 crossings, 6 of them being a motorway with no alternative, and has mostly only 2 lanes per direction.

Jeroen669

September 19th, 2007, 11:30 AM

You guys depend too much on auto transportion .

Well, loads of countries do. And it's absolutely not that PT is non-existent. About 15% of the foreigners take PT. (which don't include the other 85% take a car!) The difficulty in our country is that we do have loads of cities, but they're all not really big. (most real cities here have 100.000-200.000 inhabitants) New city extensions are build with almost american standards. Those things are making PT attractive enough for city-to-city train connections, but not for most other trips.

And don't forget we are one of the countries with the most cyclists in the world. Our bicycle infrastructure is very extensive. In my opinion there should be more invested in that (and of course on motorways). It's way much cheaper than investments in PT and it's better for people's health.

ChrisZwolle

September 19th, 2007, 11:51 AM

New city extensions are build with almost american standards.

Not really.

Dutch Sprawl:
http://i17.tinypic.com/62j2l2r.jpg
Zwolle, the Netherlands

American Sprawl:
http://i9.tinypic.com/6fu7vk1.jpg
Kansas City, Missouri

http://i18.tinypic.com/5zlaj4j.jpg
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Jeroen669

September 19th, 2007, 12:10 PM

Bij wijze van spreken dan. ;)

ChrisZwolle

September 19th, 2007, 01:03 PM

A1 will be clogged up with trucks

Trucktraffic at the A1 Apeldoorn - Deventer will grow so drastically, that by 2020, one lane will be a permanent parking lane for trucks. That shows a study by local governments.

The government of Gelderland and Overijssel demanding the construction of seperate truck lanes to deal with this problem. They are dissapointed for the point of view of transportation minister Camiel Eurlings to get the A1 off the priority list, the A1 will be taken care of after 2020.

They say at short notice, a permanent traffic gridlock will enter the region, that has huge results for the economy and reachability of Eastern Netherlands and the German hinterland.

Will this be the future of the A1?
http://www.destentor.nl/multimedia/archive/00213/GP14Z7a8a1_213844b.jpg
(Photo taking at De Lutte border, when trucks are not allowed in Germany on holidays).

LtBk

September 19th, 2007, 05:43 PM

Not necessarily, we live with 16,5 million people on the size of some American medium-sized counties. Public transportation is very crowded too during rushhour. It's not like that's a good alternative.

Where American freeways have 4 - 5 lanes per direction in urban areas, we have to do it with 2 or maybe 3 per direction, with often almost the same high numbers of traffic. We just have a road network, which is motorway-wise very good, but it still has the capacity of 1980, but we don't live in 1980 anymore, our population has grown with 2,5 million since then, and the government builds "new cities" away from the centers where work take place, hence the commute. The average car-commute is 25km (15 miles). But our N-road network is absolutely not an alternative, and sometimes even non-existing.

Most rivercrossings are only possible via motorway. Across the Waal rivier, on the entire length from Germany to the Coast, there are 8 crossings, 6 of them being a motorway with no alternative, and has mostly only 2 lanes per direction.

To be fair, most urban freeways in the US are at or over capacity(495 for example) and do to urban sprawl and stupid bureaucracy, its very hard to upgrade freeways or build new ones,forcing millions to be stuck on traffic jams with no alternatives.

Koesj

September 22nd, 2007, 12:39 AM

To be fair, most urban freeways in the US are at or over capacity(495 for example) and do to urban sprawl and stupid bureaucracy, its very hard to upgrade freeways or build new ones,forcing millions to be stuck on traffic jams with no alternatives.

Even in our country, where space is at a prime, there are loads of possibilities to widen or upgrade our existing road network. Due to screwed up prioritizing from the state government highways only get about half of the national infrastructure budget even though they carry four times as much traffic as our PT system. With the amount of money thrown away for building two sub-optimal railway lines (HSL and the Betuweroute), a lot of highways could have been upgraded in order to accomodate way more traffic than those railway lines will probably ever carry.

ChrisZwolle

September 30th, 2007, 11:01 AM

Wednesday in Germany is the day of unification. It means no truck traffic is allowed into Germany. Dutch police expects about 2000 trucks waiting for the border at the emergency lane.

http://www.destentor.nl/multimedia/archive/00213/GP14Z7a8a1_213844b.jpg

I can see if i can take a look there, wednesday is my weekly day off.

Jeroen669

October 1st, 2007, 12:02 PM

A new part of the Dutch motorway A35 has been opened last Saturday.:banana:

picture (http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5451)

ChrisZwolle

October 1st, 2007, 07:50 PM

Who saves us?

Last year, we all together spend 44 million hours in traffic jams, the total length of all queues were 419.000 kilometers. That is over ten times the circumference of the earth! Patrick Potgraven of the Traffic information agency expects that the statistics can add another 10% to those staggering numbers for the year 2007. "That's because our roads are full. Or better; fuller as full. And that doesn't fit", smiles the representative. His work services traffic information to radio stations.
"The last ten years, there has been an incredible efficiencyoperation on our roads. Therefore, drivers are driving closer to eachother. On the busiests motorways there are over 3000 vehicles per lane per hour. That is huge, a real big prestation. According to traffic theories, a lane can't take more than 2400 vehicles per lane per hour". The roads have reached absolute saturation. Closer is physically impossible, extra traffic immediatly means more traffic jams. An important evidence of that is when it rains, people tend to keep more distance. Traffic jams double or triple then, with the same amount of traffic.

Source; own translation of article by the Dutch Newspaper "Algemeen dagblad".

Paulie Walnuts

October 1st, 2007, 08:33 PM

A new part of the Dutch motorway A35 has been opened last Saturday.:banana:

picture (http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5451)

I don't see anything. Why use Imageshack? That site sucks.

De Vorst

October 1st, 2007, 08:46 PM

I looked at the a35 and all i saw was this yellow frog *redneck accent*

ChrisZwolle

October 1st, 2007, 08:50 PM

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5451/image053yz7.jpg

I think he means this one.

Paulie Walnuts

October 2nd, 2007, 03:56 PM

Doesn't look very Dutch with that concrete wall in the middle. But quite nice.

ChrisZwolle

October 2nd, 2007, 04:17 PM

I think they do that more often now. They implemented it on the new 2+1 N50 section too. It saves space, because with lanes so close to eachother, you need 2 crashbarriers of expensive steel, now only one concrete barrier which they can construct in a matter of hours, because they have some moving concrete-barrier-building-machine for it.

You put concrete in the front, and while moving, there is placed a barrier at the back. Quite a cool technique.

Nephasto

October 2nd, 2007, 05:05 PM

Isn't that barrier a bit low for blocking the lights of the other cars?
Wouldn't those plastic things that are put on top of those jersey barriers be advisable in that curve?

I know that concrete barriers block the light much better than steel rails, but when you use rails, there generally is a few metters between the 2 directions.

Jeroen669

October 2nd, 2007, 06:51 PM

Another interesting technique used here is the light part asphalt directly next to the barrier. You'll have to watch the photo very good, but when you stand on the asphalt it it's quite a different colour. Keeps away people more from the barrier (psychological).

ChrisZwolle

October 2nd, 2007, 07:41 PM

I think this is much better as then italian barrier we saw in the Italian topic, there wasn't even a white marking, just immediatly the barrier. That is asking for accidents.

ChrisZwolle

October 2nd, 2007, 08:17 PM

9 cars collide on A7 near Leek

Tuesday afternoon, nine cars crashed on the A7 Groningen - Heerenveen near Leek, in the far northern of the country. Short after 5.30 pm, they closed the entire roadway to the west, traffic was detoured over the exit off and on-ramps.

Around 18.30 a traffic jam of 11 km existed, on this normally traffic jam-free road. The road was given back to traffic around 7 pm.

Earlier that afternoon, on the A27 Utrecht - Breda, the dilation parts of the Keizersveerbridge came loose. Because of that, the left lane was closed, causing a 14km long queue in mid-afternoon outside rushhours.

ChrisZwolle

October 2nd, 2007, 10:31 PM

Chaos on A1 because of parked trucks on motorway

On the A1 near the German-Dutch border, there has been a chaos because of truckdrivers who want to get out of Germany before they are not allowed to drive on holidays. The Dutch police pledges drivers not to enter the Netherlands from Germany on the A1, because trucks use the emergency and right lane as parking lane. Same problems occurred along the A67 motorway near Venlo.

Traffic info:

A1 Osnabrück - Hengelo
Between the German border and exit De Lutte 2 km jammed because of 1 closed lane.

Between the German border and exit De Lutte
[!] closure of the right lane
Truckers from Germany using driving lanes as parking lanes.

Osnabrück - Apeldoorn
Between the German border and Interchange Beekbergen (75km)
[!] All rest areas overcrowded
Because of German holiday that doesn't allow trucks to drive after 24.00 hrs.

A67 Venlo - Eindhoven
[!]All rest areas overcrowded
Because of German holiday that doesn't allow trucks to drive after 24.00 hrs.

A76 Aachen - Geleen
[!]All rest areas overcrowded
Because of German holiday that doesn't allow trucks to drive after 24.00 hrs.

Chaotic scenes also on the Polish and Czech borders.

EDIT:

Dutch police warns for unlighted trucks parked all over the motorway.
All motorways near the German border has been clogged up with trucks. Chaotic scenes were reported from the A1, A2, A67 and A76 because truckes put their trucks to the limit to reach the Dutch border in order not to be stuck in Germany for 24 hrs, because they are not allowed to drive on German holidays.

All rest areas and emergency lanes has been filled with trucks. Right lanes has been closed, and a 70km/h limit has been posted because of safety-issues regarding parked trucks along the motorway.

When truckers acces the Netherlands, they want to stop as soon as possible, not to violate driving time regulations, which is seeable on the Tachograph. Because there is no space at all on rest areas, truckers park their trucks unlighted all over the emergency lanes.

Because this kind of behaviour is life-threatening, the Dutch traffic police urges drivers to be careful along motorways to and near the German border. Truckers are being advised to leave their lights on.

ChrisZwolle

October 2nd, 2007, 11:43 PM

This was the view in May 2007, i wonder what i see tomorrow.
http://i15.tinypic.com/4ozusr6.jpg

LtBk

October 2nd, 2007, 11:46 PM

And i thought truck traffic in U.S was bad enough.

Verso

October 3rd, 2007, 12:12 AM

Anything positive from the Netherlands? :D

Nephasto

October 3rd, 2007, 01:15 AM

I think this is much better as then italian barrier we saw in the Italian topic, there wasn't even a white marking, just immediatly the barrier. That is asking for accidents.

What? Fi-Pi-Li?

Well, certainly, but Fi-Pi-Li isn't a motorway (just expressway).

Still, I'm only talking about the zones around the curves. In straight sections it's not a problem.
But in this case (A35), there must be no problem because the concrete barrier is possible a bit taller than average, and the curve radius must be very big.

Qaabus

October 3rd, 2007, 02:57 AM

Anything positive from the Netherlands? :D

Chris is being a bit melodramatic. :) Not all roads in the country are in a permanent state of chaos. I had to commute 110km each way for a week a little while a ago. Took me 75 minutes in the morning and 70 in the evening.

Jeroen669

October 3rd, 2007, 07:50 AM

Depends on the location and time of course. Roads in provinces like Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, Zeeland and Limburg are rarely jammed. However, I think over 300km traffic jam on motorways each morning is ridicilously much for a network with just about 2,300 kms motorway (of which >95% are build-up in rural areas).

because the concrete barrier is possible a bit taller than average

It didn't seem so. I guess it was about one meter, I think. Low enough to climb on it. :)

ChrisZwolle

October 3rd, 2007, 10:33 AM

Anything positive from the Netherlands? :D

Yeah, our pavement is usually great! :banana: And we have very sophisticated road management too.

But when it comes to driving, it's not much fun, especially in the west, even on sundays, the major motorways are 4 - 6 lanes of massive traffic, just unbelievable.

So i usually head north or east (Germany).

ChrisZwolle

October 3rd, 2007, 11:22 AM

Trucks have been reported to be parked along the emergency lanes of 75km of the A1 between Apeldoorn and the German border in BOTH directions. Now there are also reports of trucks being parked along the emergency lanes on the A2 Eindhoven - Geleen. This situation is expected to worsen until 2200 hrs, also on other motorways near or towards the German border.

x-type

October 3rd, 2007, 01:06 PM

Yeah, our pavement is usually great! :banana:

is it black enough to satisfy all? :D

ChrisZwolle

October 3rd, 2007, 01:06 PM

all but one ;)

ChrisZwolle

October 3rd, 2007, 09:13 PM

I didn't go to the A1 today, because it rained all the live-long day :ohno:

It is reported that the line of trucks waiting for the German border was 16km at 4.30 pm, much longer than was anticipated, in May, on a similar day, the line was about 3km long.

This does not include the overcrowded surroundings of rest area's and gas stations.

All rest areas are filled now along the A7, the A1, the A12, A67 and A76 near the German border.

It is reported the emergency lanes were not enough to support all the trucks on the A1, so even the right lane was used as parking lane in the Twente region.

http://www.destentor.nl/multimedia/archive/00569/a1_569664b.jpg

Patrick

October 3rd, 2007, 09:27 PM

this is crazy! people must be happy when in 30 minutes they may drive again in Germany ;)

I guess those are the top-selling days for the service areas there ;)

ChrisZwolle

October 3rd, 2007, 09:36 PM

I guess those are the top-selling days for the service areas there ;)

I don´t think they like this either, those service areas are not made for this amount of trucks. Dutch service areas have usually not over 30 trucks, now they have to handle hundreds of trucks at the same time.

I think Germany should immediatly stop with these nonsense truck laws on holidays which are not in the weekend. Normal sunday truck limitations don´t give such problems.

ChrisZwolle

October 4th, 2007, 05:38 PM

Kind of busy this afternoon;

A1 Amsterdam - Amersfoort
Between IC Eemnes and IC Hoevelaken 12km
Amersfoort - Amsterdam
Between IC Muiderberg and IC Watergraafsmeer 10km
A2 Eindhoven - Utrecht
Between Boxtel-Noord and the Meuse bridge 13km
Utrecht - Den Bosch
Between IC Oudenrijn and Culemborg 14km
Between IC Deil and the Meuse Bridge 13km
A9 Diemen - Alkmaar
Between Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and IC Raasdorp 13km
A10 Inner ring
Between Amstel Business Park and IC Coenplein 15km
Outter Ring
Between Osdorp and IC Coenplein 25km
A12 Utrecht - Arnhem
Between IC Lunetten and Veenendaal 10km
A13 Den Haag - Rotterdam
Between IC Ypenburg and IC Kleinpolderplein 10km
A20 Rotterdam - Gouda
Between Schiedam and IC Gouwe 12km in total
Gouda - Rotterdam
Between IC Gouwe and IC Terbregseplein 10km
A28 Utrecht - Zwolle
Between De Uithof and Leusden 12km
A50 Apeldoorn - Eindhoven
Between IC Waterberg and the Waal bridge 17km

* these are only the traffic jams over 10km.

x-type

October 4th, 2007, 06:13 PM

which one is the longest motorway in the Netherlands (i mean one motorway under one "A" name) and how long it is?

ChrisZwolle

October 4th, 2007, 06:28 PM

The A7 is 236km long, and goes from Zaandam (just north of Amsterdam), via the "Afsluitdijk" and Groningen to the German border near Nieuweschans. However, this road has 3 "breaks", the first is the ring of Sneek, which is 2x2 with traffic lights for a couple of kilometers, the 2nd is the roundabout Joure, and the 3rd is the N7 in Groningen city, which has traffic lights at interchange Julianaplein, and also on IC Europaplein, but that is history soon.

The A2 is 213km long, from Amsterdam via Utrecht, Den Bosch, Eindhoven and Maastricht to the Belgian border just north of Liège. but has also a break in Maastricht, where it forms a 2x2 urban road with traffic lights. A tunnel is planned here, but that will take at least 10 years from now.

Another long motorway is the A28, from Utrecht via Amersfoort and Zwolle to Groningen this one is 187km long, and ends at the "interchange" Julianaplein with traffic lights at the N7.

go_leafs_go02

October 4th, 2007, 07:26 PM

I was in the Netherlands and drove all throughout the whole country, and found that, even though the highways were quite busy, Congestion rarely happened.

Travelled through Rotterdam, Uthrect, Zwolle, several times.

this was in Late August.

Maybe I just got lucky, but I found traffic to be quite decent.

ChrisZwolle

October 4th, 2007, 07:52 PM

Late August is holiday season, most people are on the French beaches then.

What did you do in Zwolle?

ChrisZwolle

October 4th, 2007, 08:15 PM

Chaotic evening rushhour
8 cars collide on the A16 in Rotterdam in the direction of Breda. The accident happend around 4.30 pm between interchange Terbregseplein and exit Rotterdam-Feijenoord. 5 cars had to be towed away. One person was injured. 3 lanes had to be closed, the accident caused serious delays on the A16 and A20 and A13 motorways.

Meanwhile the entire Amsterdam region came to a complete standstill, because of two accidents on the A7 north of Amsterdam just before rushhour started. The accidents caused a gridlock in the region, the A10 was on the outer loop jammed for 26km, the inner loop for 15km. Queues also existed in the region and on motorways leading to the A10, like the A1, A2 and A4, but also the A9.
After 7 pm, traffic began to flow again.

Also in the region, a truck with 25 tonnes of cheese flipped over on the N243 provincial road between Alkmaar and Hoorn, the road will be closed until 10 pm. Local detours are in effect.

In the morning, on the reconstructed N307, Kampen - Dronten, only one day after reopening, a car didn't keep to the right, causing a truck to crash on it's side, and ruining the brand new pavement. A speed repavement was in operation, less than 48 hours after reopening of this important road. The road was closed much of the morning, traffic had to detour long distances because of the lack of alternative roads in the area, causing long traffic jams on the N50 near Kampen.

go_leafs_go02

October 4th, 2007, 08:18 PM

I was part of a Canadian Choir Tour that did 6 concerts in various churches around the country.

Just drove through the city on the A28, that's all..sometimes did some sightseeing, but then again, we usually skipped the cities. I went to Amsterdam with some family (I'm Dutch Heritage) on my own time, but they live towards Gouda, and we took the train there. But even Utrecht (where I was downtown, traffic was reasonable), and Rotterdam was likewise, though we only drove through it.

ChrisZwolle

October 5th, 2007, 04:32 PM

eleven accidents on A2 near Eindhoven.
11 seperate accidents shortly after eachother disturbed traffic flow in the region of Eindhoven. Six personse were injured, two of them are in a bad condition. The first accident took place between a truck and a car, around 8.45 am. Shortly after that, a car crashed into the crash barrier. In the traffic jam behind this accident, 7 more accidents occurred.
On the other direction, two more accidents took place, near Eindhoven and Budel.

Traffic came to a standstill in the entire Eindhoven region, the A2 was jammed over 20km, and so were the connecting motorways A58 and A67, and the local roads in Eindhoven.

Accident with bus on A27
On the A27, an accident happened with a touring car and and multiple cars, the exact amount is unkown. Because there is no good view on how many people are injured, massive emergency services were called to the accident site.
The left lane was closed between Werkendam and the Merwedebridge. 21km of queue stood behind the accident around 4 pm, and 26km of queue in the other direction.

Meanwhile, accidents disrupt traffic flow in the region of Zwolle, a frontal crash between a truck and a car on the N50 happened between Kampen and Emmeloord. The N50 is closed in both directions, causing long detours in the region.
In the same time, an accident occured on the A28 just south of Zwolle, causing the closure of the left lane between Interchange Hattemerbroek and the IJsselbridge. 12km of stillstanding traffic is the result, with long delays. Another accident happened in the traffic jam just north of Zwolle, on the same motorway.

On the A2, an accident near Beesd caused a 37km queue from Utrecht southbound. The problem is, that this is also a detourroute for the A27 accident. On the detourroute, 10km of queue exists between Interchange Vught and Kerkdriel.
The traffic jams on the A2 merged into eachother shortly before 5 pm; 37km of queue between Interchange Oudenrijn and Interchange Hintham.

Jeroen669

October 5th, 2007, 07:14 PM

Our accident rates are really getting out of hand...

Jeroen669

October 5th, 2007, 07:16 PM

Off-topic:

(I'm Dutch Heritage)

Versta je ook Nederlands? :)

go_leafs_go02

October 5th, 2007, 10:59 PM

I'm taking that as "Do I speak Dutch?"

haha...nope..i was there for 2.5 weeks, was completley clueless! I didn't find I felt connected to the country (my grandparents moved to Canada in the 1950s), and actually enjoyed being in England alot better than the Netherlands. No offense, but I found Amsterdam to be very grimy, dirty and unspectacular, and the rest of the country pretty boring, not to mention ridiculously tiny!!!! (I'm Canadian, which would explain it) :P . But I was in London, England right before that, where they do speak my language (I speak English, and a bit of French), so it was easier to get along, and London is a world class city if you ask me. Amsterdam, not so much.

Still glad I went to Europe, makes me want to travel and see so much more!

ChrisZwolle

October 5th, 2007, 11:03 PM

go_leafs_go02

October 5th, 2007, 11:06 PM

^^ What you say, counts for me too. I don't find the Netherlands that special, pretty boring indeed, and Amsterdam? it's our capital, but putting that aside, it's nothing special to me (but it is to Chinese obviously).

About the tiny thing, some people are talking about "that long long drive to Groningen from Zwolle" (100km). Nah most are not used to distances over 80km. Not for me, i often drive 600km a day. Last week i drove 3000km :)
Sorry mods for taking this offtopic.

Yeah, I know what you're saying. But here, in comparison, your Amsterdam is in our way Toronto. And I love Toronto. It was my favourite city in the world to visit, though London kinda pushed that down to 2nd place, but yeah. I've been to Toronto at least a dozen times this year alone, and just love the city.

Yeah, here, we're notorious for quoting driving in hours, not distances. I have really no clue how far it is in kilometers to such and such a place, but easily could give you the route distance in how long it would take on average to get there.

But, I do love your rail system. I would die to have something like that liking up say Southern Ontario (between Toronto, Detroit, and Buffalo, linking up all the cities) But we love our cars too much!

Nephasto

October 6th, 2007, 12:35 AM

Yeah, here, we're notorious for quoting driving in hours, not distances. I have really no clue how far it is in kilometers to such and such a place, but easily could give you the route distance in how long it would take on average to get there.

Distance (km's) is a precise measurement, unlike time, which are just averages. ;)

For example, for a given distance of 300km's between 2 cities, people could say it takes 3/3.5hours, but it's also possible to do it in 2.5 hours, or even 2 hours.

eusebius

October 6th, 2007, 02:12 AM

But, I do love your rail system. I would die to have something like that liking up say Southern Ontario (between Toronto, Detroit, and Buffalo, linking up all the cities) But we love our cars too much!

Many in the NL actually look down on people using public transport. In this country we basically have traffic jams because people want to pick their nose in privacy. You may find this silly, but the famous French film director showed this in his film Trafic, no kidding.

Not just picking their noses of course, listening to their Coldplay CDs, waking up, shaving, having breakfast, you know those yoghurt based fruit juices with 'extra' grains. The traffic jam is just a way of life.

Most car drivers would be shocked noticing other people on a train or in a bus. They might carry germs for example; their raincoats might smell of the dogs they have.

Shukie

October 6th, 2007, 02:41 AM

All these traffic jams have a pretty hefty price tag attached to them as well, costing the Dutch economy around 2 - 2.5 billion euro a year.

Jeroen669

October 6th, 2007, 08:43 AM

haha...nope..i was there for 2.5 weeks, was completley clueless! I didn't find I felt connected to the country (my grandparents moved to Canada in the 1950s), and actually enjoyed being in England alot better than the Netherlands. No offense, but I found Amsterdam to be very grimy, dirty and unspectacular, and the rest of the country pretty boring, not to mention ridiculously tiny!!!! (I'm Canadian, which would explain it) :P . But I was in London, England right before that, where they do speak my language (I speak English, and a bit of French), so it was easier to get along, and London is a world class city if you ask me. Amsterdam, not so much.

Amsterdam is such a bad example for our country as a whole. Visit some cities like Groningen, Utrecht, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Maastricht and you will see some more real dutch cities. Amsterdam does just anything to attract tourists. It satisfies tourists by confirming the prejudices of our country, but it doesn't say much about Holland at all. As an internal tourist, I like Amsterdam just because of the geographical (the water, infrastructure, old buildings etc.) aspects.

and London is a world class city if you ask me. Amsterdam, not so much.

Don't forget the difference in size. ;) Amsterdam only has 700.000 inhabitants. I've never been in London, but I heard from some old schoolmates the city is (compared to its size) a bit boring.

About the tiny thing, some people are talking about "that long long drive to Groningen from Zwolle" (100km). Nah most are not used to distances over 80km. Not for me, i often drive 600km a day. Last week i drove 3000km

I remember the first time talking to some girl in Amsterdam: "You came here all the way up from limburg? You poor boy!" I really couldn't resist my laugh. :lol:

But, I do love your rail system. I would die to have something like that liking up say Southern Ontario

Our PT system is pretty good, indeed, though it's often known as unreliable. However, our cities are not that big, so it's (time-technicly) for most of the trips not a good alternative for the car (which declares our big problems with traffic jams)

ChrisZwolle

October 7th, 2007, 07:35 PM

Some pics of the recently opened A35, a bypass of the city of Almelo (75.000 pop).

1. Last traffic light; Wierden-West.
http://i23.tinypic.com/20gi9uo.jpg

2. Entering the final piece of N35.
http://i23.tinypic.com/2je3dhg.jpg

3. Exit Wierden. Now partially under construction.
http://i21.tinypic.com/29beyxu.jpg

4. Sign for through traffic. No sign of any German destination yet.
http://i21.tinypic.com/67r04m.jpg

5. Wooden noise-reducing shields.
http://i21.tinypic.com/20prfkg.jpg

6. Exit Wierden.
http://i23.tinypic.com/1767th.jpg

7. Entering the 2x2 motorway. On the left a quarter "tunnel". This section is build partially under ground level, so noise won't affect the new neighborhood of Wierden which will be build.
http://i21.tinypic.com/2vry4pl.jpg

8. Bridge over the A35, and entrance from the Wierden exit.
http://i24.tinypic.com/29q1buc.jpg

9. The entrance lane merges into the exit lane of exit Wierden-West (N36).
http://i20.tinypic.com/15s8qb8.jpg

10. Deventer is not logical here. They better signed Osnabrück.
http://i21.tinypic.com/213no5g.jpg

11. Local traffic can't take the N36 exit, because of the reconstruction of the Twentecanal bridge. Hardenberg and Ommen are regional destinations in the north and northeast of the province Overijssel.
http://i21.tinypic.com/2regrb4.jpg

12. Very decent asphalt.
http://i22.tinypic.com/6tpac8.jpg

13. Another bridge. SOS telephones are sightable on both sides.
http://i21.tinypic.com/ve2cs7.jpg

14. Entering the viaduct over the Twentecanal.
http://i23.tinypic.com/6ru6om.jpg

15. Exit Almelo-Zuid. Important exit. Ootmarsum is a (scenic) village near the German border.
http://i24.tinypic.com/2ihxrhc.jpg

16. Sign says; Twentecanal, branch Almelo.
http://i24.tinypic.com/2rogfp0.jpg

17. The area around exit Almelo-Zuid will be developed in the next years.
http://i21.tinypic.com/2142p76.jpg

18. 600m exit sign.
http://i24.tinypic.com/20ub90j.jpg

19. Still no German destination. They will be showed at the second interchange.
http://i23.tinypic.com/smzzx2.jpg

20. The exit itself.
http://i23.tinypic.com/2ugdrm0.jpg

21. Weird configuration of the lanes near Almelo-Zuid. Check next pics.
http://i20.tinypic.com/16bmzhd.jpg

22. the situation; 2 lanes from exit Almelo-Zuid, one immediatly tapers into the motorway lane, the right one becomes a regular motorway lane. The left motorway lane dissapears. I'm not aware of such situations anywhere else in the Netherlands.
http://i20.tinypic.com/2zj9euq.jpg

23. Interchange Azelo is closing fast. This part was existing.
http://i21.tinypic.com/sbiwxg.jpg

24. Still no German destinations, only some cities nearby.
http://i23.tinypic.com/10r3ayd.jpg

25. Dutch Ford Ka ambulance :lol:
http://i20.tinypic.com/316nnsi.jpg

RawLee

October 7th, 2007, 07:41 PM

Yeah, here, we're notorious for quoting driving in hours, not distances. I have really no clue how far it is in kilometers to such and such a place, but easily could give you the route distance in how long it would take on average to get there.

Just out of curiosity...if I say Budapest-Debrecen 1:30hrs(true number,I did it),what does that tell you? What is the distance?
Other example...Budapest-Nyíregyháza 2:30hrs(true,again). What is that distance?

TheCat

October 7th, 2007, 08:54 PM

Just out of curiosity...if I say Budapest-Debrecen 1:30hrs(true number,I did it),what does that tell you? What is the distance?
Other example...Budapest-Nyíregyháza 2:30hrs(true,again). What is that distance?

go_leafs_go was referring to the fact that distances here are so large, that we often quote them in hours, which is a good estimate of the amount of time it will take me to drive somewhere. That's all it tells me. I can estimate the distance from the times you gave me, assuming you are referring to driving on the motorway without a traffic jam, but that's not the point. The times basically give you comparative information with other destinations.

For example, you said Budapest-Debrecen is 1:30 hours. That's approximately what it takes me to drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Hence, I'd say it's just over 100km, perhaps around 120km. However, if I am driving to Montreal, it's usually more useful for me to know that it takes around 6 hours, not that it's about 600km.

RawLee

October 7th, 2007, 09:07 PM

go_leafs_go was referring to the fact that distances here are so large, that we often quote them in hours, which is a good estimate of the amount of time it will take me to drive somewhere. That's all it tells me. I can estimate the distance from the times you gave me, assuming you are referring to driving on the motorway without a traffic jam, but that's not the point. The times basically give you comparative information with other destinations.

For example, you said Budapest-Debrecen is 1:30 hours. That's approximately what it takes me to drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Hence, I'd say it's just over 100km, perhaps around 120km. However, if I am driving to Montreal, it's usually more useful for me to know that it takes around 6 hours, not that it's about 600km.

Both Budapest-Debrecen and Budapest-Nyíregyháza around 230km. The difference is that one is all way motorway,and the other is last ~50km normal road(motorway inaugurated in like a month,since then,thats 1:30 too)
We measure distance in time too,but usually add the distance if the other speaker is unfamiliar with the approx distance.

TheCat

October 7th, 2007, 09:20 PM

Both Budapest-Debrecen and Budapest-Nyíregyháza around 230km. The difference is that one is all way motorway,and the other is last ~50km normal road(motorway inaugurated in like a month,since then,thats 1:30 too)

Well, of course, I understand what you're saying. But at the end, what mostly matters to you, the driver, is how much time you'll be spending driving. Lastly, it doesn't mean that we don't know about or don't use distances :) All that was meant is that distances are so large that for further destinations, the drive is so long that if I tell you that something is 5 hours away, it doesn't matter if it'll be 4.5 hours or even 6 hours, because in such a long journey time is a good estimate.

TheCat

October 7th, 2007, 09:23 PM

Some pics of the recently opened A35, a bypass of the city of Almelo (75.000 pop).
Another great Dutch motorway! I can't stop admiring the construction quality of your roads :)

9. The entrance lane merges into the exit lane of exit Wierden-West (N36).
<img>
Do you mean that this is a full clover leaf interchange? Are they very common in NL?

RawLee

October 7th, 2007, 09:26 PM

Another great Dutch motorway! I can't stop admiring the construction quality of your roads :)

I think you should check out every european motorway topic:) Especially the newcomers have very good motorways(because their roads are new:))

ChrisZwolle

October 7th, 2007, 09:30 PM

Do you mean that this is a full clover leaf interchange? Are they very common in NL?

Nope, the exits are very close to eachother, so the entrance/acceleration lane of Exit Wierden goes immediatly into the exit lane of Wierden/N36

denvise

October 7th, 2007, 09:40 PM

^^As a Swede I get the Canadian Guy . In Sweden probably Norway too, we say so and so many hours, not mil(1mil=10km) or km. While the danes always say it in km. It's probably because distances in Euro-countries are so small so it matter's how aggressive you drive and the volume of traffic. In the EU 40km means a lot moore, than what 30 min do. 30 min of what? rush hour? or no traffic?

Verso

October 7th, 2007, 11:13 PM

That looks like a high-quality motorway! You really put money in this. That interchange is a bit confusing though, never seen it.

Nephasto

October 8th, 2007, 12:55 AM

It's funny to notice the really short distances signed.
There is no distance signs indicating anything farther away than 50kms!

Jeroen669

October 8th, 2007, 12:31 PM

^^ That says something about our average distances. The're quite low. For instance, it's quite normal here to work 2 or 3 cities further, but because of the small distances between the cities >100km is for usual 'every-day-driving' quite much. I thought the average commuter distance was about 20 kms. So that declares (for a big part) our small distances on the signs.

However, there's a system in it. Let's take this (http://i21.tinypic.com/213no5g.jpg) picture. The first destination is the next exit, so you won't take the wrong one when you want to exit at Almelo-Zuid. The second one, Enschede, is the end of the A35 and also the biggest city of the Twenthe region. The third one is a corner destination for the A1 in western direction. The only thing is missing here is a destination for the A1 in eastern direction. In this case: a german city (Osnabrück, Hannover or something like that). That would make it complete.

wyqtor

October 8th, 2007, 01:59 PM

That looks like a high-quality motorway! You really put money in this. That interchange is a bit confusing though, never seen it.

Should I risk it?....
Yep, I will! This motorway is so fantastic, it is even better than the Struma! :D :nocrook:

Alex Von Königsberg

October 8th, 2007, 02:48 PM

Motorway is good, but distance and exit signs are not very good. They should put an arrow only on those signs that immediately precede the exit, not those that are 1200m or 600m away from the exit. However, I really like the planning of Dutch (and German also) city streets. Also, I think that the Dutch road marking is superb! :okay:

ChrisZwolle

October 8th, 2007, 08:06 PM

I think that the Dutch road marking is superb! :okay:

On motorways; yes, but i would strongly reconsider that opinion about non-motorways.

They make the roadview quite inconsequent, there are tons of different markings, mostly not meeting the so called "suggestions on road markings". For instant the stroboscopic/eleptic dashed side markings sucks bigtime.

Verso

October 8th, 2007, 08:17 PM

I especially like these signs:http://i23.tinypic.com/2je3dhg.jpgWith red rectangle (on motorways (A*)) it looks much better though. :)

go_leafs_go02

October 9th, 2007, 01:50 AM

Yes. I was quite impressed by your highway standards. Signage is pretty good too on the main moterways (being the A-series of Highways).

I loved your variable speed limit signage that could be found in more urban areas. Those were very slick.

One thing I was quite surprised by though was the lack of shoulders on major roads. It only seemed to be on the expressways where they were found. Any other route, even if the speed limit was 100 km/h had no place to pull over onto a paved or gravel shoulder.

I'm North American, so thats just the standard I've come to expect anywhere. But I assume there are reasons roads are so narrow when they are 2 X 1 lanes in width.

Jeroen669

October 9th, 2007, 09:17 AM

Why should there be shoulders on usual 2-lane roads? That's quite unusual, also for most of the other european countries. For the same amount of space you'd better build a small 2+1 or 2X2 profile

ChrisZwolle

October 9th, 2007, 09:22 AM

Chaos around Utrecht
On the A2 towards Amsterdam happened an accident with 7 cars early morning. A total gridlock was the result in the region. Around 9.15 am, still 270km of queue existed.

An queue of 32km existed on the A2 between Waardenburg and Utrecht-Oog in Al. The A12 was fully jammed over 23km towards the west. The nearby A27 was jammed aswell, 17km southbound, and 22km northbound. On the A28, a 20km queue was the result of all motorways and other roads jammed, from Nijkerk to interchange Rijnsweerd.

Meanwhile, an accident near Deventer-Oost caused a 33km long queue between interchange Azelo (near Almelo) and Deventer-Oost. A car crashed here and was then overrun by a truck.

On the A58, a truck had jackknifed, causing 15km of queue from both directions to the accident site. Between Moergestel and Hilvarenbeek, the right lane was closed.

Around 8.30 am, there were 80 traffic jams with a total length of 432km.

TheCat

October 9th, 2007, 12:51 PM

Why should there be shoulders on usual 2-lane roads? That's quite unusual, also for most of the other european countries. For the same amount of space you'd better build a small 2+1 or 2X2 profile

Actually, I've had several occasions where I had to pull over on a 2-lane road, once just because I got lost and it was clear that continuing forward was pointless :) But seriously, what if your car breaks down suddenly, and there is no shoulder? You're gonna block the only lane of traffic. Even in Israel, where I used to live, there are often shoulders on 2-lane roads. But I guess it's not as crucial as on major expressways.

Jeroen669

October 9th, 2007, 03:25 PM

I think it's a waste of money. If there's no median, people can get over the other lane. But when there's really something wrong you'd better get your car off the road. Again, if you're adding driving lanes people can get overtake you safer, but it's a better use of space.

Some other trouble: people here drive more aggressive that in NA. So if there's room on the right they will use it for overtaking. Whether it's allowed or not. The same goes for bus lanes and stuff like that. So in a way it can make the road even unsafer...

I know in Germany on some rural 2-lane roads they put 'Mehrzweckstreifen' (I hope I spelled it well) on some Bundesstraßen. But those are quite small and not primarly meant as an emergency lane. They provide a space to use for slower traffic for letting overtake faster traffic.

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/8823/eifelenoostbelgie019ze4.jpg

On this road I even saw two overtaking cars in different direction, both overtaking a truck. It's that wide. But I thought german policy was to reconstruct these roads into a 2+1 profile.

go_leafs_go02

October 9th, 2007, 06:07 PM

Here is an example of what almost all major roads in rural Ontario look like:

http://onthighways.com/hwy_10-19_images/19_cl_45_south.jpg

This is a very high quality job due to the concrete gutters and paved shoulders in the foreground., and very recent (and also a provincial job, not municipal level.
as for a normal standard:

http://onthighways.com/hwy_3-9_images/3_cl_225_west.jpg

Just a simple strip of gravel used to pull over in case of breakdown or if there is something on the road.

Some other trouble: people here drive more aggressive that in NA. So if there's room on the right they will use it for overtaking. Whether it's allowed or not. The same goes for bus lanes and stuff like that. So in a way it can make the road even unsafer...

Its gravel, not a solid surface where its rather dangerous to drive on at a fast speed.

Jeroen669

October 9th, 2007, 06:57 PM

Its gravel, not a solid surface where its rather dangerous to drive on at a fast speed.

That's why I said "get off the road". In a lot of cases you can 'park' your car here also next to the road. Gravel is not that popular here, only on real small roads (with aren't wide enough for 2 vehicles passing each other). But some well maintained grass does the work too. (not before braking to a extreme low speed, of course, but that's just as your gravel example)

RawLee

October 9th, 2007, 07:12 PM

Half-off topic:
This is a main road(national 1st class) here:
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3295/resizeofimg2426vb3.jpg
Its enough wide when you stop,if you close the door,and you are not with a truck:)

ChrisZwolle

October 9th, 2007, 07:43 PM

Huge traffic jam on A2 after crashed truck.

An accident with a truck occurred on the A2 Eindhoven - Utrecht around 6 pm. The traffic jam growth was fenomenal, each minute, the queue growed with 1km. The A2 was already the scene of an incredible long traffic jam of 43km this morning. All motorways leading to Utrecht had a 30km long queue.
The jams lasted long, around 10 am, there was still a 30km queue related to the accident on the A2, 4 motorways away.

A map of the traffic jams. (Only the traffic jams related to the A2 incident are shown). Situation this morning around 8.30 am.
http://i21.tinypic.com/30t5u91.png
Over 150km of queue was directly related to this single incident.

ChrisZwolle

October 9th, 2007, 11:03 PM

Extra lanes between Amsterdam and Almere

The traffic problems between Amsterdam and Almere, a suburb of 200.000 which almost totally rely on Amsterdam with only one bridge connecting the two cities, should be solved with extra lanes. Transport minister Camiel Eurlings hopes to reach an agreement with regional governments this wednesday.

The NOS Media company manage to got the conceptagreement tuesday.

It concerns the motorways A1, A6 and A10. There are a lot of traffic jams on these roads, and they will only become worse if nothing happened on the roads, because Almere has the ambition to grow to 400.000 inhabitants.
A tunnel connecting the A6 and A9 north of the Lake Naarden recieved a lot of resistance.

That's why the government wants to widen the existing motorways. The construction should begin in 2009, according to the NOS.

The A1 is now only 2x3 lanes + 1 rushhour lane which can be changed in the rushhour direction, and has an AADT of 200.000. It is usually impossible to travel here without traffic jams in and outside rushhours. Another problem is the movable bridge on this busy motorway. Sometimes it opens, immediatly causing kilometers of queue.

x-type

October 9th, 2007, 11:07 PM

we had a shit at Zagreb bypass this morning, awfull accident (3 dead, 7 injured; 2 trucks and 4 cars) caused by speed and fog. and in other direction at same place - roadworks. so one direction had to go threw city.

btw, A35 looks great! i just cannot understand this changing the lanes (so cannot you neither :lol:). maybe a lot of traffic exits at that exit and a lot od traffic is coming, but not many vehicles are keeping going straight - that is only logical explanation for me ;)
and one more thing i dont like - not many far destinations at the tables. ok, it is probably normal because in the Netherlands you have a lot of parallel motorways and interchanges, but i miss them somehow ;)

ChrisZwolle

October 9th, 2007, 11:10 PM

^^ This distance table is quite extreme. it's not usually to see such short distances only. Usually there is always a destination in the 50 - 100km range on important motorways which aren't a dead end on the coast or so.

That's because we use the RFP (Remote Focal Point) system, which always shows the last major city along the motorway, no matter how far. That's why Maastricht is signed over 200km, immediatly south of Amsterdam already.

By the way, people say 200km is one hell of a distance here. (i consider it a two hour drive if there are no traffic jams).

x-type

October 9th, 2007, 11:15 PM

cool system. we have signs that lead to first large city along the motorway, or maybe 2 of them (for instance, at Zagreb-Split you allways have Split written in that direction, but also you have other larger cities such as Zadar or Sibenik). when there is no more large cities along the motorway till border, we have border crossing name written, so sometimes you can find really silly villages as main destinations written :lol:

ChrisZwolle

October 9th, 2007, 11:28 PM

Ka-8

October 9th, 2007, 11:42 PM

^^ that last thing is quite Polish. Once borders dissapear (like in the EU-Schengen zone) those tiny villages aren't important anymore. Nobody wants to travel to those tiny villages, especially not from 600km away (like in Poland). They better sign the border only a few exits before the actual border crossing.

What does it have to do with Poland?? :nuts: Every country has it's bordertowns/villages. Compare Klazienaveen to Slubice and this comparison looks way better for Poland if you write about it. Independently of the Schengen zone this is still the border so there is a purpose to put in on the signs. Take Venlo for example... it's one of rather not especially important locations but well known by almost every driver that there is the border, so this is the reason to being present on the signs.

If You mean that in Poland often markings show distances / directions to tiny villages that are located by main roads, for me it is more convenient. It does tell me the location and distance to crossing of certain roads, which for me is way convenient than showing direction to a large city e.g. Wroclaw or Poznan.

ChrisZwolle

October 9th, 2007, 11:50 PM

I meant that last thing. Signing some Lithuanian border town 800kms away is nuts, no other countries does that, and that's for a reason.

Ka-8

October 10th, 2007, 12:00 AM

I meant that last thing. Signing some Lithuanian border town 800kms away is nuts, no other countries does that, and that's for a reason.

Well, for me it is better option, which is more convenient for me. I prefer to know the exact places and work on the route taken on my own instead of just following the sign e.g. "Stuttgart". Sometimes, especially for professional drivers it has huge importance, as e.g. in Germany you can take two different routes to deliver the cargo. If it's Saturday during the summer holidays period, simple following the signs directing to the large city may be very expensive while of two motorways you can take (with similar distances driven) one is closed for the heavy transport on Saturday, and on the second one lorries may drive without restriction to make an extra turnover for the haulier on that day.

For a no-brainer navigation sign Wroclaw in Germany may be better, but for more advanced and detailed decision on which route to take, the version where one can choose to drive to Wroclaw through A18 Olszyna, or A4 Zgorzelec/Goerlitz is way better.

x-type

October 10th, 2007, 01:40 AM

I meant that last thing. Signing some Lithuanian border town 800kms away is nuts, no other countries does that, and that's for a reason.

well, we dont have such extrems. we have those border villages up to 50 km max far from border.
exception is A3. why? because all way the A3 there were signs to Belgrade (while we were in Yugoslavia). then came war and all the connections with Serbia were erased, and at all signs Belgrade was replaced with Lipovac, which is a border village that nobody heard for before the war. :lol: as there were signs to Belgrade in Zagreb, too, those were also replaced with Lipovac, which is about 300 km far.
now you cannot see Lipovac signs along A3 anymore, you can see Slavonski Brod and 'upanja which are larger cities. befor border you probably can see Lipovac, or maybe Bajakovo (which is actually name of broder crossing, not Lipovac). but at access roads to motorways you can sometimes still find Lipovac because A3 is better known as Lipovac motorway. :)

RawLee

October 10th, 2007, 08:31 AM

We sign capitols or countries:lol:
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3997/resizeofimg1822kr9.jpg
And when we have border town names,then we also have the nearest bigger city on the other side of the border too.

ChrisZwolle

October 10th, 2007, 03:47 PM

I made two short video's today of two bridges across the IJssel river near the city of Kampen, a small city just north of my hometown Zwolle.

N764 Mill Bridge (Molenbrug) (http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=I-TXEPv-8d4)
The first video contains the Mill bridge, which used to carry the N50 across it. Now it is replaced with the higher bridge on the second video.

N50 Island Bridge (Eilandbrug) (http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqfPAsRuyeA)

ChrisZwolle

October 10th, 2007, 09:44 PM

Oops in Emmeloord;

http://www.destentor.nl/multimedia/archive/00573/Borddetail_573840b.jpg

(signs upside down)

Verso

October 10th, 2007, 11:09 PM

^^ Is this photoshopped?! :lol:

wyqtor

October 11th, 2007, 04:42 AM

We sign capitols or countries:lol:
And when we have border town names,then we also have the nearest bigger city on the other side of the border too.

I think your system is much more practical than the Polish one. Here in Romania they also have an annoying tendency to show just the last little town/village before the border, though there are some signs in Timisoara that point to Szeged as the primary destination.

The only bad thing is they only show it there and not further along the route, so if you don't know the road or have a map you might think you took a wrong turn somewhere. In Hungary you are always reassured ;) .

ChrisZwolle

October 11th, 2007, 08:41 AM

^^ Is this photoshopped?! :lol:

Nah you would think eh.

But it's not.

I drove there yesterday, but they sealed the sign off now.

http://i22.tinypic.com/1qhb3d.jpg

Verso

October 11th, 2007, 10:23 AM

I drove there yesterday, but they sealed the sign off now.Smart guys. :D

KIWIKAAS

October 11th, 2007, 10:36 AM

The sign makers made the first mistake by putting the arrow on the wrong end of the signs. The guys putting them up probably did so thinking ''oh well, till we get the right ones in. Atleast the direction is correct''. I'm sure they were aware of the fact that they would have to be placed upside down to give the correct direction

Verso

October 11th, 2007, 11:07 AM

RawLee

October 11th, 2007, 11:57 AM

The first video contains the Mill bridge, which used to carry the N50 across it. Now it is replaced with the higher bridge on the second video.

N50 Island Bridge (Eilandbrug) (http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqfPAsRuyeA)

So thats how our new bridge will look/feel like.

ChrisZwolle

October 11th, 2007, 05:31 PM

^^ This is quite an exception in Dutch bridge building. There aren't so many high bridges, mostly it's just a flat plate across the river.

xlchris

October 11th, 2007, 08:14 PM

I heard that around 2009 the building will start with;

Expand the A1, A6, A9 and A10-East. From Amsterdam to Almere.

I thought it was;

A1: From 5 lanes to 7?or 6
A6: From 3 lanes to 5?

Does somebody have more information?

KIWIKAAS

October 11th, 2007, 08:46 PM

^^ Where on the A1 do you find 5 lanes?

Jeroen669

October 11th, 2007, 08:47 PM

Does somebody have more information?

http://forum.autosnelwegen.nl/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=1950&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

SmarterChild

October 11th, 2007, 10:21 PM

http://i23.tinypic.com/10r3ayd.jpg

Why is Oldenzaal signed before Enschede? :?

ChrisZwolle

October 13th, 2007, 05:55 PM

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/PW100/A1-A9%20Schiphol%20Almere/VerkeerenVervoer-1.jpg

Expected traffic intensities by 2020.

Purple: Traffic intensity with connecting alternative (now in the trash)
Green: Traffic intensity with the widening alternative (this will be build)

As you can see, an AADT of 300.000 is expected on the A1. This kind of intensity is very rare in Europe.

Verso

October 13th, 2007, 10:46 PM

The Netherlands is one big city.

ChrisZwolle

October 15th, 2007, 08:49 PM

Video: N44 - A44 Den Haag (The Hague) - Leiden (http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=f5yhrgOAEF4)

This video goes over the N44, which is a narrow 4 lane arterial, which eventually merges into the A44 motorway towards Amsterdam. Quite a large traffic jam is sightable in the other direction, as well as nice fall colors on the trees.

ChrisZwolle

October 15th, 2007, 09:08 PM

Multiple accidents on motorways

An overturned truck on the A67 caused a closure and long traffic jams near Eindhoven. Between Liessel and Helden, the roadway was totally closed for some time. The truck layed on it's roof in a nearby stream, and the driver was trapped in his cabin. Trauma emergency services were fast on the scene to rescue the driver. The accidents caused 6km traffic jam, and 20km of traffic jam in the other direction.

Around the same time, on the A10, the beltway of Amsterdam, 2 cars crashed near the Zeeburger bridge, 2 people were killed in the accident. 3 lanes had to be closed. An screen was set up to avoid drivers looking at the macaber scene.

Around 2 pm, a cooling truck turned over in interchange Grijsoord of the A50/A12. The connector from Nijmegen to Utrecht is now 7 hours later still closed. The roadway & crashbarrier recieved severe damage, so it has to be repaired. A detour is in effect for traffic heading for Utrecht.

People don't get killed often on motorways. The far majority of the traffic casualties happens on low speed roads.

ChrisZwolle

October 15th, 2007, 09:59 PM

Video: A44 - A4 Leiden - Amsterdam (http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=AkND5rEnkyw)
Screencap:
http://i20.tinypic.com/14tmo2x.png

A video of the widest motorway in the Netherlands; the A4 with 2x5 lanes. (the A16 has more lanes, but those are parallel lanes). This video and the last video's credits goes to Frits, my friend who made the video, because i ran out of memory on my flashcard. His camera can only take 320 px movies, so please watch the video at it's original size, and not the standard Youtube one.

Jeroen669

October 16th, 2007, 11:21 AM

CborG

October 16th, 2007, 02:04 PM

Fresh updates of the widening of the A2 between Vianen and Beesd:

Alongside the A2:

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1276/a24au0.jpg

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1226/a25nm2.jpg

works for a new viaduct:

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/2527/a27cp7.jpg

activity near junction Everdingen, looking north

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/441/a26ra0.jpg

looking south:

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4219/a29ef8.jpg

near exit everdingen:

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/9316/a210ft7.jpg

exit Culemborg:

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2780/a227sy8.jpg

looking south from the coupure in the Diefdijk near Culemborg:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3159/a21ch0.jpg

to the north:

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5923/a22cs9.jpg

to the north near exit Everdingen:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/709/a23ia7.jpg

Near a rest area between Culemborg and Beesd:

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6599/a212dg8.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8214/a213yn0.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3795/a226fk1.jpg

the old viaduct, a recognisable feature that has to go:

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/7050/a223wv4.jpg

Near beesd, you can see the old narrow viaduct which carries the A2 over the railway:

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6567/a214xc9.jpg

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7306/a216pl9.jpg

trucks with sand came and go:

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/880/a215en1.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2964/a217ca4.jpg

A new brigde over the Linge, a small river, will be built here. the temporary bridge is for pedestrians and cyclists:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3687/a219rk2.jpg

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/790/a218nv2.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4831/a221hh8.jpg

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/9139/a222em3.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6506/a220ij8.jpg

exit beesd:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8206/a224cp6.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2852/a225sk9.jpg

ChrisZwolle

October 16th, 2007, 05:48 PM

Technicly it isn't wider than the usual 2X4 motorway streches, because there's an emergency lane missing here. (5th lane is sort of an rush hour lane) Imo the A16 at Ridderkerk (4X4) is way more impressive. :)

They turned the left emergency lane into a full fifth lane some years ago. However, the fifth lane can be closed when it's quiet, but it's open most of daytime.

ChrisZwolle

October 16th, 2007, 10:26 PM

Video: A12 Utrecht

YDGYzpkGmuA

I took a video of the A12 motorway in Utrecht. I finally fixed my camera so the video isn't blue anymore. It had to do something with automatic white balance settings.

Image of the motorway;

http://www.roadpics.net/nl/A12/A12O/24.jpg

Nephasto

October 17th, 2007, 12:26 AM

They turned the left emergency lane into a full fifth lane some years ago. However, the fifth lane can be closed when it's quiet, but it's open most of daytime.

Was it 2x4 with emergency lanes in the middle (besides from the usual ones, on the exterior)?

2x4 sections in Portugal (well, they are quite rare) and in Spain too don't have emergency lane in the middle. Just the usual on the right.
It's ok I think. For more than 4, than yes, maybe emergency lane in the left would be advisable... But still, it's always good to have extra emergency lanes! :)

CborG

October 17th, 2007, 01:33 AM

Was it 2x4 with emergency lanes in the middle (besides from the usual ones, on the exterior)?

Yes it was, until 2003. You can still stop on the left side in case of emergency, i wouldn't recommend it though because they are very short 'parking harbours (http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.260974,4.687922&spn=0.000796,0.001824&t=k&z=19&om=1)'. You can hardly accellerate out of them when it's busy.

xlchris

October 17th, 2007, 02:54 PM

Terrible news yeasterday! A 17(?) year old boy caught by a truck when he was helping someone on the moterway. His father saw it all happen in front of him. And a few hours after that, a women caught by a truck, she was walking on the moterway????

ChrisZwolle

October 17th, 2007, 03:04 PM

Kind of his own fault. Which idiot goes walking on a motorway or near the driving lanes? That's like suicide.

xlchris

October 17th, 2007, 03:09 PM

^He want to help someone, but he was stupid, to go out on the passengers side, and then walk to the drivers side (his dad), !!

Jeroen669

October 17th, 2007, 05:58 PM

It's not completely his own fault, I think. The driver should have at least warned him, because he has a responsability for the pessengers. After all, the boy isn't the one with a driving licence.

ChrisZwolle

October 19th, 2007, 11:51 PM

Ka2Kx0Z6qAU

A short video of the Alphen Aquaduct in the recently build N11, a semi motorway, but it has sadly enough an expensive aquaduct with traffic lights at either end. The N11 is a faster connection between Leiden and Utrecht, people can avoid the traffic jams on the A12 between Zoetermeer (Sweet Lake City) and Den Haag (The Hague).

ChrisZwolle

October 20th, 2007, 12:28 AM

YgcUj5E4Twg

A video from the N14 national road near The Hague. During a short traffic jam, i included some info about the road. Hope you like it, the video is 8,5 minute long.

ChrisZwolle

October 20th, 2007, 09:03 PM

n2msrcKbveQ

A10-Zuid (South) - the highrise section of Amsterdam

This video is 4:30 minutes long, and goes from Interchange De Nieuwe Meer to Interchange Amstel. It travels through one of the main highrise sections of Amsterdam; the zuidas (South Axe).

Qaabus

October 20th, 2007, 11:03 PM

Some nice videos. :)
But you really should stop translating geographical names.

SmarterChild

October 24th, 2007, 01:18 AM

May we see photos of some roads in zeeland, like the A58 and some of the bridges over the schelde?

Jeroen669

October 24th, 2007, 11:55 AM

The duck at the end almost caught you, didn't he? ;)

ChrisZwolle

October 25th, 2007, 10:26 PM

Oil spill caused major delays in Rotterdam
A truck tanker lost oil, which formed a track along the A4, A20, A13 and N209 roads. This caused traffic jams all day long, and a bad reachability of Rotterdam Airport. Some lanes had to be closed, causing over 40.000 hours of delays, costing the society about 700.000 euro's, not counting the costs of longer detour fuel usage, traffic personel costs, and removing the oil by the DOT.

ChrisZwolle

October 26th, 2007, 02:22 PM

Only 11% of cartaxes for road projects

A survey by Bovag-RAI found out that from the 16,6 billion euro's of traffic taxes, only 1,9 billion is actually invested into the Dutch roads. Therefor, 11,4% of all taxes related to carusage and carposession, like VAT, road taxes, fuel taxes, environmental taxes etc etc is really invested into the improvements of roads.
The Bovag-RAI writes that in the paper "Mobility in numbers" 2007. This year, taxes raise to 17,3 billion euros. About 2 billion of that will be invested into roads. "Let the government be clear; if you want to raise taxes for extra income, don't say it's because of the environment or maintenance of roads.", a spokesman of Bovag said. The new numbers also show the real price of one liter euro 95 gas was 58 cents, while drivers pay 1,50 euro per liter.

Nothing new, ofcourse. This has been the case in many years. Nobody cares not all road-related taxes are being invested in public transportation, environment or road improvement, but 11% is extremely low. :(

Budgets for public transport & roads are structurally too low, year in, year out, hence the overcrowded trains and roads.

No, we rather invest in megalomanic infrastructure projects, like the freighttrain route "Betuweroute", and the new HSL, which are combined about 250km long, but costs are now already 12 - 13 billion, and is still rising. :ohno: