The Jordaan is completely fixed on a weekday afternoon. Cars are not a meter ahead, there is a honking everywhere. Route planners send traffic through the neighborhood, but that only seems to make it worse. We are less than half an hour and immediately see how long the traffic jams are.
According to local residents and motorists, it is especially this week that things get stuck completely: “I have never seen it so much,” says a taxi driver. ” Very annoying. As a taxi driver you spend an hour and a half on a ride that normally lasts twenty minutes. That is precious time. “” A woman in a double car says to AT5: “I thought: I have a biro, that fits past it. But no, not to get any movement. “
Coentunnel
According to motorists and residents, the culprit is clear: the closed Coentunnel. As a result, motorists search en masse for alternatives, and end up in the narrow streets of the Jordaan. “Everyone tries to sneak, but in the end everything is certain,” says one, “” nobody lets each other go. We just block each other, “says the other. “The municipality just has to put traffic controllers to prevent sneak traffic. This is completely out of hand.”
Rijkswaterstaat
Rijkswaterstaat – responsible for the work on the Coentunnel – confirms that the closure leads to a lot of crowds, especially now that the holiday is over. Together with, among others, the municipality of Amsterdam, they monitor the situation. They call on road users to adjust their travel behavior: work at home as much as possible, travel together or choose a different time. They also try to discourage sneak traffic.
“Route planners sometimes seem to point out faster shortcuts, but that is a sham. Stay on the main routes, you are ultimately faster there. We are in conversation with route planner services to adjust their advice,” a Rijkswaterstaat spokesperson told AT5.
Yet some Amsterdammers we speak to wear the situation with humor. “We can’t do anything about it. Then just chill: open windows and a nice music. Instead of viewing people on terrace, now from the car.”