Reducing traffic jams on motorways is a spearhead in Dutch transportation policy. Congestion is supposed to cause losses to society because of decreasing accessibility by car, which should lead to increased travel times. Taking a closer look at traffic jam problems makes clear, that one feels to strongly about it. Firstly, travel time increases are smaller than expected, at least in the long term. There is even some evidence that there are no time increases at all (`BREVER law'). People adapt their travel behaviour in such a way that travel time increases are partly or fully undone. Nevertheless, the adaptations have other undesired consequences, for instance a reduction in the number of destinations one can visit in a given time period. However, supposing the adaptations are a result of rational behaviour, the adaptations will mitigate the direct disadvantages of traffic jam. Secondly, traffic jam has some important desired consequences that often are overlooked. Traffic jam contributes efficiently to reducing car use, which is an objective in the livability context. The fact that so much attention is given to traffic jam and particularly to its accessibility problems makes clear, that accessibility is thought of more importance than livability, and that one is specially concerned with the well-being of the car driver. (A)
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