“This is the busiest summer on European roads ever,” says Arnoud Broekhuis of the ANWB Traffic Center in no uncertain terms. ,,We see something new this year: the crowds already start on Friday. The black Saturdays this year were Saturday and Friday and Sunday. It’s busy all week. Understandably, why leave on Saturday to join the traffic jam. We’ve been shouting for decades: don’t leave on Saturday, people are finally listening. The traffic jams may not be longer than in other years, but the cumulative total delay is much more significant. Even on a Sunday you are just two hours late when you come back from Spain.”
Road congestion also leads to more stranded vehicles. Since 1 July, director Victor Geskes of the ANWB Alarmcentrale has been monitoring 400,000 telephone calls from Dutch people with car trouble or other disaster. “I’ve never seen it so busy before. More than 30 percent more car breakdown than in 2019, the last summer holiday before corona.