Fifty years on

Last Pentecost Day, May 15th, marked the 50th anniversary of the traffic jam. In 1955, many Dutch (and Germans) wanted to visit the flower fields in the west, and many others fancied a day on the Veluwe nature reserve, in the east. Those two traffic streams met at a roundabout called Oudenrijn, in the center of the Netherlands. All in all, some 50.000 cars passed there, causing the first Dutch tailback ever.

Back then, people were astonished, but also proud. The traffic jam meant that the Netherlands had become a ´modern´ country. It also marked the success of contemporary government policy, which was essentially to encourage car ownership and car use.

Fifty years on, the situation is different. The worst traffic jams still occur because of recreational transport, ie at the beginning or end of holidays, but commuter traffic now causes jams each day.

It is to be hoped that variabilisation, which took stakeholders half a century to agree upon, will mitigate congestion.

Christof

The Dutch

In the past week and a half, Dutch media have reported extensively about the possible introduction of a 'kilometerheffing', a per kilometre vehicle charge (see also: ´...and off we go!´).

In response to the failed attempts to get this charge past political and interest-group barriers, current Transport minister Peijs put representatives of different stakeholders, like ANWB and the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment, in a platform which was to prepare a proposal on variabilisation of vehicle tax charges.

On May 10th this platform reached final agreement on the phasing in of a kilometre-charge. The general idea is to convert the current vehicle tax system (including a one-off and a yearly fix charge) to a mileage-dependent system, which would include a transfer of some of the fuel excise currently levied in the Netherlands. The system is intended to favour fuel-efficient cars.

This announcement of agreement was preceded by much discussion in the media by members of the platform now claiming unity. Jacques Schraven, chair of the Dutch employers association had called a part of the plan, the establishment of 30 charging spots around notoriously congested roads "unthinkable". He demanded that the full revenue of the charge would be used to build new roads. But yesterday evening, after over six hours of discussions, current ANWB chair Van Woerkom said: "we have white smoke".

Schraven said he was "not unhappy" with the outcome, while Paul Nouwen, former ANWB chair and chairman of the aforementioned platform declared the first phase was to encompass just four to six charging points, and that there would be no charge as long as there is no congestion.

Also, a consortium is to be established to decide in greater detail on how existing bottlenecks should be tackled. The decisions the consortium wants will then have to be approved by Dutch regional and national authorities.

Virtually nothing was said about the technology that is to be used, though some expect the system that will eventually be adopted to be (similar to) the TRIPON, a device produced by FELA, a Swiss telematics equipment producer.

The fact that a great number of stakeholders succeeded in reaching some sort of agreement on kilometre charge in itself is no mean feat. The subject is politically sensitive, as Nouwen himself observed some weeks ago.

Moreover, the diversity of the parties endorsing the current proposal makes it very hard for anyone to prevent it from being accepted by the Dutch parliament and cabinet ministers.

Mr. Nouwen will present the final report of the platform to minister Peijs a week from now.

It reminded me of the remark a Manhattan resident made in a TV commercial, running: "What can I say about the Dutch? They are... Dutch".

Christof