[Jeroen]

Thanks for a very nice write up on my home country the Netherlands. Make sure you enjoy it too, especially the pretty parts outside the busy main towns.

Interestingly, the Dutch enforcement department has their speed cameras concealed behind the information boards in the highway unlike in Germany where they are kept in clear visibility.

The german law stipulates that the image of the speeding car needs to be taken from the front. In many cases you can clearly see the driver’s face on the image you get with your ticket. Trust me I know, I have had a few German speeding tickets over the years.

In the Netherlands there is no such regulatory requirement. A lot of the mobile speed cameras are concealed. to the point that the police has been known to hide them in garbage bins along the roads:

https://www.flitsservice.nl/rpics_20...oweg/kliko.JPG

You don’t loose your driving license that easily over speeding. Anything up to more than 30 km/h will be dealt with a fine. Also, the fine will be send to whoever own the car. It doesn’t matter if you were not driving the car, you will have to pay. It is not a case of being innocent until proven guilty. If your car is recorded speeding the owner, by default is guilty. They introduced this law quite some time ago to make it more difficult to claim it wasn’t you speeding. I have had two cases where people drove around in an identical car as mine, on an identical registration plate. I had to go to court twice to prove it wasn’t my car. It was easy to prove it wasn’t me. Proving it wasn’t my car was more difficult as the cars looked virtually identical.

If you are caught going even faster the Officier van Justitie (District Attorney) will decide and he/she does that based on your record. If you have a long history of speeding fines you might have to appear in court and your driving license could be taken away.

Rule of thumb, speeding by more than 50 km/h is very likely to loose you your license. also, speeding in residential areas and speeding where there are roadworks is very expensive. Easily double the fine.

Jeroen

[vb-saan]

Brilliant thread, thanks for sharing! We need more like this.

The quoted part below summarize it so well

Originally Posted by vivee90

A one-line statement would be, "it is not just the road but the whole ecosystem of users, city planners and enforcers". The roads are not just well-built but neatly integrated into a bigger system, keeping users in mind. The level of planning and maintenance is simply amazing. The entire system is backed up with proper infrastructure to monitor and regulate traffic. On top of that, the general order and discipline of the road users are overwhelming.

[StarrySky]

Thank you for this thread.

Based on my experience almost all of what you have written is true for Finland as well. I have also witnessed the planning that goes into infrastructure development. An area near my home will soon have more residential buildings coming up. Expecting increased traffic, there is already work going on to widen the road, make new roads and a new roundabout to regulate the traffic. All this before any building construction has started.

Originally Posted by vivee90

Some of the quirky aspects that I observed
1. In the Netherlands, the buses have a different schedule on the weekend and weekdays!
4. Interestingly, the Dutch enforcement department has their speed cameras concealed behind the information boards in the highway unlike in Germany where they are kept in clear visibility.

1. Same here, the buses have a different schedule in winter and summer months as well (fewer services in summer months).
4. Cameras are visible here for the most part. Sometimes, I see road signs warning of speed cameras, but fail to spot any cameras.

Interestingly, a 6-month old newspaper report mentioned that only around 120 of about 950 speed cameras are actually functional. The rest don't have camera equipment, but of course you won't notice that from a distance. To prevent road users from getting too smart, the police periodically change the camera equipment between different locations.

DL can be suspended for a specific time if you are caught speeding thrice in one year or four times within a 2-year period.

Speeding fines are heavy. If you exceed the speed limit by more than 20km/h, you can get a day-fine - where the fine is X days of income. In my understanding, the fine can up to 120 days income with no limits on the actual amount of fine. There have been cases where some millionaires have been fined in excess of €80,000.

[Amit_Kapoor4750]

Thank you so much for this very informative thread. Your write-up is spot on with equally beautiful pictures. There are so many things in the West, which we must learn and implement in our country.

[Highh5]

Thank you so much for such detailed and knowledgeable write up.

I was overwhelmed by seeing the amount of research they did before putting the system in place like putting up a signal on the same level so that one doesn't have to put strain on neck.
Now, since India is also moving towards stringent quality and safety norms, along with Adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and autonomous brakes in near
future (may by 2022).

I would say there should be infrastructure also in place to support such technology(like lane departure system) and above all driving sense along with road manners.
Without those whatever we may apply or bring in, it will not sync with our current system the way it did it Europe.
Road manners and Advance Technology go hand in hand in order to make it effectively successful.

Mods: If you find this post off-topic, please delete or move it to appropriate thread.

[kraft.wagen]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

In the Netherlands there is no such regulatory requirement. A lot of the mobile speed cameras are concealed. to the point that the police has been known to hide them in garbage bins along the roads:

But I thought they do have sign boards for most of the speed cameras that are on the highways. And what I have observed is the 80 kmph roads usually have hidden cameras.

Thanks to flitsmeister, I save a few € on fines

The fines are hugely different between the NL, Germany and other countries. For eg. 5 kmph over(after adding the tolerance) can cost up €50 in NL while its only €10 in Germany.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by kraft.wagen

But I thought they do have sign boards for most of the speed cameras that are on the highways. And what I have observed is the 80 kmph roads usually have hidden cameras.

Thanks to flitsmeister, I save a few € on fines.

Yes, correct but you can’t count on it. But the general idea is to get the speed down not the fines up. So that’s why a lot of cameras are visible and or announced. Just not all, just to keep everybody on their toes!

GPS systems such as TomTom come with very detailled speed camera databases and also include average speed check areas all over Europe.

On various radio programs the flitsmeister announcements are read out as well. The police does announce some of the speed check as well, but again not all.

Jeroen

[govindremesh]

As someone living in the Netherlands, recently employed and eagerly awaiting to get my driving license, this thread is a huge help!

Not sure I missed this in the post, but Netherlands and many countries in the EU also have a mandatory yearly inspection of vehicles. Its called the APK.

My guess is that inspection itself prevents breakdowns on roads that lead to congestion, which unfortunately is commonplace in India

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by govindremesh

Not sure I missed this in the post, but Netherlands and many countries in the EU also have a mandatory yearly inspection of vehicles. Its called the APK.

My guess is that inspection itself prevents breakdowns on roads that lead to congestion, which unfortunately is commonplace in India

Yes, it in fact a mandatory EU rule. However, the implementation varies somewhat per country.

The basic rules for the Dutch APK are as follows:

A new petrol car requires it first APK after four years, then it is every other year untill the eight year. From there on it is every year..

a new diesel car requires it first APK after three years and every year afterwards.

The APK is a safety and emission check. Nothing to elaborate and it doesnt mean the car wont break down. Just that it meets some basic requirements.

There is a different APK regime for classic cars.

If you have any queries on living in the Netherlands feel free to PM me.

Jeroen

[Chetan_Rao]

Very well-written and presented.

It's heartening to see what foresight and proper planning can achieve, backed up by constant review and upgrades to stay ahead of the game.

As easy as it is to wish some of this could be replicated in our country, we need to realise proactive planning can't be implemented reactively. In most cases, it's logistically impossible/impractical to achieve.

To quote just one example: All the rapid transit system which are still in planning and groundwork phases across our metros, when they should've been up and running a couple decades ago. Town planning needs to be decades ahead, not behind, and we've missed the proverbial bus.

Not to forget, planning, implementation, integration with existing utilities and periodic review, all this needs qualified people in-charge of our cities (not just individual projects), and administrations empowered to make necessary decisions quickly without getting tangled in red tape.

[vivee90]

Thank you for the motivation guys! Am very glad the post was interesting and useful. There are a couple more points that I will add in a few days time.

Originally Posted by Acharya

Thanks, nicely captured. Do I see Eindhoven in the pic capturing shopping market (& PSV Stadium)?

Yes, it is. Most of my pictures are from Eindhoven since I lived there.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Thanks for a very nice write up on my home country the Netherlands. Make sure you enjoy it too, especially the pretty parts outside the busy main towns.

Thank you, Jeroen. I sure did when I was there. The highlight being a 60 km bike trip near Groningen in December (Kiek over Diek!). Simply serene and adventurous with the winds literally pedalling us back. The uniformity in the basic infrastructure is what fascinated me! I hope to come back sometime.

Originally Posted by StarrySky

Speeding fines are heavy. If you exceed the speed limit by more than 20km/h, you can get a day-fine - where the fine is X days of income. In my understanding, the fine can up to 120 days income with no limits on the actual amount of fine. There have been cases where some millionaires have been fined in excess of €80,000.

That is the real SMART fine!

[UB_007]

Originally Posted by rst89

Nice observations.

Even Germany follows different bus schedule on weekdays and weekends. I have personally suffered due to it when I was standing at the bus stop waiting for my regular weekday bus on a weekend.

Adding to this, in smaller towns or villages of Germany the buses ply only if there is a passenger and it has to arranged in advance.
If you wish to use the bus then call the phone number given in the bus schedule at bus top a day before or some hours in advance otherwise be ready to wait for it and miss the connecting train

-UB

[MaxTorque]

Beautiful thread and kudos to your efforts to write the details with necessary pieces of information and photographs.

I think the population plays the major role in infrastructure planning. As all of us part of the problem, we can't blame anyone but ourselves.

In India, we do plan major infrastructure projects. But by the time it is implemented, the capacity will not be sufficient to serve the population. Similarly, the coordination among government agencies is comparatively less. We have seen many cases where the roads will repaired by PWD few weeks later water authority/telecom will dig the roads again.

Most of them I have seen in Australia. But I am seeing the multiple lanes with different speed limit for the first time.

[extreme_torque]

To be honest the road ecosystem is more or less the same in almost all the developed world except for leverages given for speeding, some peculiar use cases and infrastructure for non motorised traffic aka Bicycles.

I will cite one peculiarity with Melbourne and it is so peculiar that it is not found anywhere else in the world and it is called a Hook Turn. Simply said it is turning right from the left and the idea is to ensure trams move through intersections without being delayed by cars waiting to turn right therefore they are only prevalent in the city.

Here's how you would take it "To perform a hook turn, move into the left lane when approaching the intersection and advance across the intersection, coming to a stop within the lane that is marked for right turning traffic. Ensure you activate your right indicator. Observe the traffic lights on your right, which is the road you are turning into. Only complete the right turn when they change to green, which will occur after the traffic lights change to red in the road you are currently on."

It is ingenious and brilliant and not hard once you know what the idea behind it.

[vinair]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Thanks for a very nice write up on my home country the Netherlands. Make sure you enjoy it too, especially the pretty parts outside the busy main towns.

Have to agree to this! I was in Barlo and stayed in one of the best hotels (sandton chateau de raay) around! Was truly amazed to see the importance given to cycling with dedicated lanes and some wonderful landscapes!

I once took the country side from Barlo to Beringe and was again left astounded with the landscape and the way people drive some pretty big trucks on some really narrow country stretches! Must say those huge trucks are a 'love at first' sight ones!!!