The paper discusses some traffic and transport aspects of the new Dutch policy on physical planning. On March 17, 1988 the Dutch government published the Fourth report on Physical Planning. In this report the government expresses the national policy in the perspective of the year 2015. One of the main issues of the report is the policy for traffic and transport. A further growth of traffic is expected: the number of cars will almost double. The accessibility environment of cities and towns will become worse, especially in the high-urbanised areas of the Netherlands. Guidance of the development of traffic is required. Such guidance should be as follows: Commuting by car should be limited by: (a) coordinated location of new housing areas, new working areas and new shopping areas, schools etc; (b) a high quality of public transport; and (c) influencing traffic flow and parking (by road pricing for example). The expected growth of car traffic will endanger the position of the Netherlands as a "country of distribution" (of goods) in Western Europe, because of increasing traffic jams. The port of Rotterdam and the airport of Amsterdam however should be enabled to become so-called "mainports" of Western Europe. Connections with the hinterland are vital for this development. In the Fourth report on Physical Planning the government selects main-transport-motorways which will have priority in improvement and capacity growth and on which commuting will be prevented as much as possible.
Abstract