Translation of results from the Dutch national model into practical information for policy recommendations.

This paper presents the policy context of the Dutch National Model, which has been extensively used for the preparation of the new Structure Scheme Traffic and Transportation and for two recent studies with major policy implications into congestion in the west of the Netherlands. The forecasts for the year 2010 and various policy options to cope with the increasing car traffic are presented. The model has also been used to design a National Road Network on the basis of objective criteria. The emphasis of the paper is on how the model has been able to address the policy questions at hand and how model results can be used for sketch planning purposes.