Short
November 6, 2008This morning, it took me 2 hours to drive from Warmenhuizen to my university in Amsterdam - a 60km drive which normally takes me about 45 minutes. The reason? Let me explain by showing how our traffic announcements on the radio start:
And now for the traffic, here’s all traffic jams longer than 8 kilometres and at unusual locations…
Yes. Due to time constraints, they just don’t bother anymore with the “short” traffic jams of 8km and less. This means that between 7 and 9 and 17 and 19, my average driving speed is 30km. On a highway with a 120km speed limit. And that you hit massive traffic jams at 3 in the morning. On Sundays.
The Netherlands. Wonderfully liberal and civilised country, where everybody is (technically) equal. We allow homosexuals to get married, even though they’ll be late to their own wedding, probably BECAUSE THEY’RE STUCK IN TRAFFIC.
Don’t you have excellent train transportation? We certainly don’t have it here in Bulgaria.. but we do have the bottlenecks.
Comment by Dimitar — November 6, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
I wouldn’t exactly call our train transportation system excellent… When it’s fall, most trains can’t ride because there’s leaves on the tracks… :| When there’s a power outage in Rotterdam, all trains everywhere in the Netherlands get disrupted and travelling takes 2 hours longer all of a sudden. When two people are walking inside the “Schiphol-tunnel”, no train can enter or leave the tunnel, and again all trains get disrupted.
When none of this happens, trains are not on time for no specific reason.
Guess it’s still better then in Bulgaria, but well.. it’s still shitty!
Comment by LoeZ — November 7, 2008 @ 9:09 am
Thom, traffic jams are universal.
It’s just a matter of time. In a decade or two few people will be able to afford the gasoline anymore so the traffic jams will disappear.
Comment by yelamdenu — November 7, 2008 @ 11:19 am
the most important thing is to be careful…
Comment by Parantar — November 9, 2008 @ 7:23 am
That’s odd, we can track it online:
http://www.traffic411.com/mapsanjose.html
But the ability of tracking doesn’t help much when every road is jammed. That’s how it is in most metropolitan areas. Your best bet is to live nearby school/work. That works until you get married or buy a house.
In Japan trains are always on time to the second, but train pushers are absolutely horrifying:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwMxUBL_ws
Comment by cppguy — November 10, 2008 @ 7:53 am