Fleet mobility hit as Dutch battle transport crisis

The Dutch Government's efforts to find alternative ways of controlling and managing the growing demand for mobility are getting desperate.

Attempts to persuade car drivers to use buses or trains have sadly failed. Fleets and company car drivers say there are no alternatives to the car, yet the costs of motoring and congestion on the roads are soaring. Sadly, it is a problem that is familiar to fleets across Europe.

The minister of traffic and public works, Tineke Netelenbos, was frank in her admission of this when she said: 'Driving a car is fantastic. We have pursued an anti-car policy for 50 years, but no one has taken any notice.'

This is an honest opinion from a minister whose plans to introduce a toll system during rush-hour traffic (primarily around the major cities) recently ran aground.

Pretty much everyone was against the idea. As an alternative we can now expect a trial in which motorists will be taxed according to the amount of kilometres they have driven.

The argument behind this is extensive: two thirds of the population has expressed a preference for variability in car taxation.

But surveys show that fewer than 15% of car drivers/users see any possibility of switching to an alternative means of transport.

Public transport is desperately out of date and, in terms of development, is hugely out of step with growing mobility.

In a country that expects to be paralysed by 44,000 traffic jams in 2002 (an average of 120 per day!), this is frustrating to say the least.

According to Huub van de Coolwijk, chairman of the car division within the umbrella branch organisation RAI, these jams account for about 80 million hours of lost travelling time. The business driver is clearly the biggest loser.

It is abundantly clear that some kind of measures are needed. Between now and 2020, personal mobility is expected to rise by 20–30%.

In the period 1995 to 2020, the number of car kilometres driven is estimated to rise by more than 40%. Of this, about 12% have already been added in the past five years.

In the National Traffic and Transportation Plan (Nationaal Verkeers-en Vervoerplan, or NVVP) the RAI attempts to provide an answer to the growing demand for mobility.

In this context, a great deal of attention has been given to space-efficient transport, such as trains or modern forms of public transport. The plans call, for example, for a light rail system linking the major urban cities.

The bicycle also gets more of the spotlight. It appears that more than half of the 5.7 billion car journeys undertaken each year are shorter than 7.5 kilometres, making the bike an excellent alternative.

Measures to reduce bike theft, improve the infrastructure for cyclists and create better parking facilities should have a positive effect.

In keeping with good Dutch practice, a 'bike council' has been set up, an umbrella organisation of experts tasked with generating and implementing forward proposals.

The Dutch authorities have calculated that, in less than 10 years, Government income arising from motoring taxes has more than doubled: from 12.6 billion guilders in 1990 to about 28.6 billion guilders in 2000.

Dutch households spend on average 15% of expendable income on travel and transport - and they are not happy about it.

A total of 77% of the Dutch population believes petrol taxes are too high, more than half (52%) feel that parking costs are unreasonable, while 54% are unhappy about the level of taxes imposed on new cars.

But for many there is no real alternative. Work and home have been deliberately separated. Housing developments are still being built that have no direct links to any form of public transport.

Every morning there are enormous traffic jams in the direction of the major cities (where businesses are located), with the situation reversed in the evening as commuters return to their homes in out-of-town residential areas.

Public transport is still unreliable and four out of 10 train passengers feel that tickets are too expensive. The train network is increasingly unreliable, with many trains breaking down each day through poor materials and insufficient personnel.

Strikes by dissatisfied conductors and train drivers are a constant threat. From an objective point of view, it is clear that the Dutch Government has failed in its efforts to resolve mobility problems, and that the problems are set to get worse before they get better. (September 2001)