The

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

has a public road network totaling 139,000 km, one of the densest in the world. Its use has increased since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km traveled per year, three quarters of which is by car, making it among the most intensely used road networks. In 2019, the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

ranked the quality of Dutch road infrastructure as the best in Europe and second to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

out of 141 countries. Dutch roads include at least 3,530 km of

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

s and expressways, and with a motorway density of 64 kilometres per 1,000 km², the country also has one of the densest motorway networks in the world. The Netherlands' main highway network (''hoofdwegennet'') consists of 5,200 km of national roads, together with the most prominent provincial roads. Although only about 2,500 km of roads are fully constructed to

standards, most of the remainder are also expressways for fast motor vehicles only. Since 1997, a national traffic safety program called "''Duurzaam Veilig (Verkeer)''", or "Sustainable (Road) Safety" has had a major influence on the road network.

Traffic calming Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers in the neighbourhoods. It aims to encourage safe ...

was applied on a massive scale; by 2009, more than 33,000 km of rural roads had their speed limit reduced from to 60 km/h (37 mph), and over 41,000 km of urban roads were limited from to 30 km/h (19 mph), amounting to over half the national road network being calmed. A popular calming and collision reduction measure has been to replace intersections with roundabouts in order to reduce serious T-bone collisions. By 2015, there were almost 5,000 roundabouts throughout the Netherlands. Except for motorways and expressways, most Dutch roads support cyclists; 35,000 km, a quarter of all roads, feature dedicated cycle tracks that are physically segregated from motor traffic. Another 4,700 km of roads have clearly marked bike lanes, and on other roads traffic calming has allowed cyclists and motorists to safely mix. Busy junctions sometimes give priority to cyclists, and in streets such as ''fietsstraten'' (cycle streets) and ''woonerven'' (home zones), bicycles always have priority over cars.

History

The first motorway in the Netherlands dates back to 1936, when the current A12 was opened to traffic between

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 peo ...

and

Zoetermeer Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2013 this had grown to 123,328 ...

, near

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. Motorway construction accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s but slowed in the 1980s. Current motorway expansion mostly occurs outside the

Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim" or "Edge" City) is a roughly crescent-shaped conurbation in the central-western Netherlands, consisting primarily of the four largest Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht); their suburbs, and many tow ...

. General maximum speed limits were introduced in 1957 (50 km/h within built-up areas) and in 1973 (100 km/h on extra-urban highways); the motorway limit was raised to 120 km/h in 1988.

Roads by management authority

National and provincial roads

About 5,200 km of national roads ''(rijkswegen)'' are controlled by the ''

Rijkswaterstaat Rijkswaterstaat, founded in 1798 as the ''Bureau voor den Waterstaat'' and formerly translated to Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management, is a Directorate-General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Net ...

'', and the country's twelve

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

control about 7,800 km of provincial roads. Most motorways are national roads, and the remaining national roads are mostly expressways. Only a few motorways are provincial, and these are generally shorter and serve regional traffic.

Municipal roads

Municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

roads make up the bulk of the Dutch road network, totalling 120,000 km.

Water council roads

Aside from the division into provinces, the Netherlands is also divided into 21 water management districts. Together with other authorities, they own and control another 7,500 km of roads.

Roads by legal types and definitions

From 1998 to 2007, more than 33,000 km of roads have been converted to regional access roads with a speed limit of 60 km/h, as indicated by signage. Regional access roads are visually distinct from other roads by having no center line marking. Slower vehicles and non-motorised traffic are allowed; busier roads have adjacent cycle tracks, while quieter ones have advisory bike lanes. Regional access roads can fall under any of the road management authorities. On extra-urban roundabouts, the

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recommends that motor vehicles have priority over cycle tracks, as opposed to urban roundabouts where cycle tracks have priority.

Within built-up areas

From 1998 through 2007, more than 41,000 km of city streets have been converted to local access roads with a speed limit of 30 km/h, for the purpose of traffic calming. Nederlands verkeersbord G5

Depending on how individual municipalities interpreted the 1997 Sustainable Safety policy guidelines, ''woonerven'' have come under pressure from a drive to implement continuous zones of 30 km/h (19 mph) on local access streets. In some towns, this has led to residents protesting against the doubling of local speed limits from 15 km/h to 30 km/h. ''Woonerven'' are still widespread and new ones are still built, sometimes because of space restrictions. In 2011, 20% of all Dutch homes were still located in ''woonerf'' areas, and around 2 million people (over 10% of the country) were living in ''woonerven''.

Notable roads and statistics

As a side effect of the dense road network, roadside and verge grass strips account for three percent of the Netherlands' total land area.

Quality

In 2019, a

report ranked the quality (extensiveness and condition) of the Dutch road infrastructure as the best in Europe, with a 6.4 score on a 7point scale. It was ranked the second-best of 141 countries in the world behind

and ahead of Switzerland. Although traffic congestion is a relative constant in the Netherlands, a Europe-focused summary of

TomTom TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. ...

's 2021 traffic congestion statistics found that there were no Dutch cities in the global Top100. There were also no Dutch cities in the high congestion category, although Haarlem was ranked #103 at 28% congestion in 2021, 2% below the "heavy" category.

Major motorways

The busiest Dutch motorway is the A13 between

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, with a traffic volume of 140,000 motor vehicles per day.

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, in the centre of the country, has the busiest motorways on average (almost 100,000 vehicles a day), with major motorways A1, A2, A12, A27 and A28 running through it. The number of passing motorised vehicles is counted every minute of the day at 20,000 measuring stations on the Dutch motorway network.

Notes

External links

autosnelwegen.nl
– Dutch website about the country's national roads and its motorways.

References

{{Roads in Europe Road infrastructure in the Netherlands Road transport in the Netherlands Transport infrastructure in the Netherlands Traffic law Law of the Netherlands Traffic signs