Road transport in the Netherlands

With 139,000 km of public roads, the Netherlands has one of the most dense road networks in the world – much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium. In 2013, 5,191 km were national roads, 7,778 km were provincial roads, and 125,230 km were municipality and other roads. Dutch roads include 3,530 km of motorways and expressways, and with a motorway density of 64 kilometres per 1,000 km², the country also has one of the densest motorway networks in the world. In Dutch a motorway is called "autosnelweg" or simply "snelweg"; other expressways are just called "autoweg" (''literally: "car road"''). According to a 2004 estimate, some 12,500 km of road remain as yet unpaved.

Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year. With a population of 16.8 million people, this comes down to an average of per person per day. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, making up three-quarters of all passenger kilometres travelled, meaning that while Dutch roads are numerous, they are also used with one of the highest intensities of any road network. Car ownership in the Netherlands is high but not exceptional, and slightly lower than in surrounding countries. Goods vehicles make up 20% of total traffic, and road transport accounts for 40% of all freight movements registered, including overseas shipping.

The busiest Dutch motorway is the A13 between The Hague and Rotterdam, with a traffic volume of 140,000 motor vehicles per day. The province of Utrecht in the centre of the country however, has the busiest motorways on average (almost 100,000 vehicles a day), with major motorways A1, A2, A12, A27 and A28 running through it. The busiest 4-lane motorway in the Netherlands is the A10 in the Coen Tunnel in Amsterdam with 110.000 vehicles per day. The widest Dutch motorway is the A15/A16 just south of Rotterdam with 16 lanes in a 4+4+4+4 setup. Provided by Wikipedia