In the Randstad the traffic pressure on roads causes congestion. This is also a problem on a number of roads feeding into and away from this area. While the traffic volume on roads continues to increase, public transport usage is stagnating, or even decreasing, with the result that the number and length of traffic jams on motorways rise daily. This closely relates to two, up until now, unresolved (traffic) economic problems. The first is that in the Netherlands the passenger transport market does not function optimally. To an extent the market may be said to be failing. The second problem relates to the first one. Within the realm of the still applicable competitive conditions, independent transport companies are up against rivalry between private economic interests and wider social interests. The author of this article concludes that: (1) drastic adjustments will have to be made to the variable consumer prices in both the private car and public transport sectors; and (2) that increasing public transport service frequencies will be the prerequisite to easing pressure on the Randstad roads. Several suggestions are made concerning the measures that need to be taken.If society seriously believes that the massive car transport problem is to be tackled, it will at least be necessary to sharply amend the current situation of market failure, alongside already proposed and implemented measures. (A)
Abstract