Transport in the Netherlands

Traffic in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is both a very densely populated and a highly developed country in which transport is a key factor of the economy. Correspondingly it has a very dense and modern infrastructure, facilitating transport with road, rail, air and water networks. In its Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-2015, the World Economic Forum ranked the Dutch transport infrastructure fourth in the world.[1]

With a total road network of 139,000 km, including 3,530 km of expressways,[2] the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world; much denser than Germany and France, though not as dense as Belgium.[3] The Dutch also have a well developed railway network, that connects most towns and cities, as well as a comprehensive dedicated cycling infrastructure, featuring some 35,000 km of track physically segregated from motorised traffic.[4]

The port of Rotterdam is the world's largest seaport outside East Asia, and the largest port of Europe.[nb 1][5] It connects with its hinterland in Germany, Switzerland and France through the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Two thirds of all inland water freight shipping within the EU, and 40% of containers, pass through the Netherlands.[6] Additionally, the port of Amsterdam is Europe's fourth busiest seaport, according to Eurostat.

Mobility in the Netherlands is considerable. On the roads it has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year,[7] three quarters of which are done by car.[8] Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.[8] Additionally, Dutch airports handled at least 70 million passengers in 2016.[9] Excluding air travel, the Dutch journey more than 30 km a day on average, which takes them just over an hour.[10]

In 2010, 1.65 billion tons of goods traffic was registered, half of which moved by sea and inland shipping, and 40% by road transport. The remainder was mostly by pipelines; rail transport only handles 2% of freight movements through the Netherlands.[11]

  1. ^ "Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 - World Economic Forum".
  2. ^ "CIA World Factbook | Field listing: Roadways". www.cia.gov. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. 2014. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  3. ^ "Road density (km of road per 100 sq. km of land area) | Data | Table". Data.worldbank.org. The World Bank Group. 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference fietsberaad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Port Statistics 2013" (PDF) (Press release). Rotterdam Port Authority. 1 June 2014. p. 8. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference NFIA Seaports was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "SWOV Fact sheet | Mobility on Dutch roads" (PDF) (Press release). Leidschendam, the Netherlands: SWOV, Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research. July 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 April 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  8. ^ a b Waard, Jan van der; Jorritsma, Peter; Immers, Ben (October 2012). "New Drivers in Mobility: What Moves the Dutch in 2012 and Beyond?" (PDF). Delft, the Netherlands: OECD International Transport Forum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ "Bijna 64 miljoen—zo veel passagiers zag Schiphol nog nooit – NOS" [Almost 64 million—Schiphol never saw so many passengers – NOS]. NOS.nl (in Dutch). Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. 9 January 2017. Archived from the original on 9 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  10. ^ "CBS StatLine - Mobiliteit in Nederland; mobiliteitskenmerken, regio's" [Dutch Statistics Bureau - Mobility Netherlands trips data]. Statline.cbs.nl (in Dutch). CBS - Statistics Netherlands. 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  11. ^ "CBS StatLine - Goederenvervoer Nederland; vervoerwijzen en -stromen" [Dutch Statistics Bureau - Goods transport Netherlands data]. Statline.cbs.nl (in Dutch). CBS - Statistics Netherlands. 2010. Archived from the original on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.


Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).