Trifter

More asphalt file as medicine. On that the group of specialists in the three prospective coalition partners, CDA, LPF and VVD, agreed. One of the agreements in the formation agreement last week was: There is no road pricing in major hubs and the roads widened. The responses from the field range from “a disaster” to “excited”. Opinions on how the files can be resolved, are very divided.

“It is almost the communist planned economy”, says transport economist Erik Verhoef of the Free University in Amsterdam. ,, Central and generate more supply than demand but how to adapt.”Verhoef can predict in which direction that change will: “If you expand the roads, they walk vol. That is proven.”He pulls out a little state with: between 1983 and 1996 the number tripled file kilometers.

In all these years is just asphalt resolved to combat congestion, says Verhoef, while, since the twenties in all the books say economy pricing, including the kilometer charge, the best way to influence behavior of people”. If a new government actually chooses wider roads than that according to him, an open invitation to all Dutch go driving”.

Also Transport and Logistics Netherlands (TLN) is disappointed by the formation agreement between the partners. This employers’ association for freight is pleased that plans are made to invest money to combat the congestion. However, the burden should be placed where it belongs: in the user”, is the organization. In that respect they were in agreement with Minister Netelenbos (Traffic). Netelenbos would include the cost per kilometer increase. According TLN would it, in particular for the interesting people motorist and the car to leave”.

Not everyone is equally skeptical about the intentions of the proposed coalition partners. The ANWB, for example, is happy. “We find it in any case thanks for having mobility problems as a heavy role in the negotiations,’’said director Guido van Woerkom. Would offer that choice should be one,”integrated approach, including attention from the logistical problems surrounding cities, so the file can not move to the suburbs.

Van Woerkom: ‘The urban mobility in recent years received little attention. The infrastructure is not adapted. In France there are on the outskirts of the city’s large parking lots, where the traveler on foot or by public transport stops.”Van Woerkom is not afraid that more roads will also lead to more drivers. ,, The average annual number of kilometers by car for years is 16,000. People are not driving in rush hour because they are so interesting, but because they have to work.”What he did not say that the number of cars in recent years has increased very.

The BOVAG, the organization for the automotive sector, SMEs and the Netherlands, the employers’ organization for SMEs, find out what they hear too little of the formation in the right direction. They have calculated that every year 1.1 billion guilders extra investment in the network. There were SMEs according Netherlands,, mounting evidence that road pricing a significant burden on the operators involved. And we are determined not to wait.”

The BOVAG has never believed in the kilometer charge for the control file, said spokesman Rob Boon. The BOVAG hopes on the road widening and Boon points to the experiment with a ’striker strip “between Amersfoort and Utrecht, where the hard shoulder at peak hours is open to traffic. ,, That is the number of files dropped significantly.”

Alderman Cok Sas (PvdA), responsible for circulation in the municipality of Dordrecht, correctly expresses great concern about the plans. “I do not know how many jobs there are on the A-16 between Rotterdam and Dordrecht, it looks like a runway. But if there’s work to the HSL, it has come down yet again, from Moerdijk to Drechttunnel.”

Investing in public transport is he a better solution, especially because the Netherlands has enough room for roads. “If you look at the IJssel mouth and Drechtsteden, you see a large urban area, intersected by roads. Netherlands is becoming a major asphalt plain.”