European community for mobility management

On average Dutch people spend one and a half hours en route each day. That is 15 minutes longer than the average time on the road for citizens of 16 EU countries, and it is also the longest. Even so, the Dutch spend only 2 minutes longer per day commuting between home and work, than commuters in other countries do. 

These are some of the results presented in the report “Holland in one day; time allocation in the Netherlands compared with fifteen other European countries” issued by the Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau (The Netherlands Institute for Social Research). Many Europeans are on the road daily for the home-to-work commute, shopping, transporting children to and fro, and leisure time activities. The Dutch travel frequently and long: Holland has, at 92%, the highest percentage of the total population traveling daily and France has, at 72%, the lowest percentage. Of all travel times in Holland, most is spent during leisure hours (41% of the total traveling time), followed by the time spent commuting (23%). Even on weekdays, people spend more travel time for leisure activity purposes than they do commuting. This is not only the case in Holland, but is also true for other west European countries and Northern Europe. In Southern and Eastern European countries, this is only the case on weekends. Of the 91 minutes that the Dutch travel on average per day, 17 of those minutes are spent on the bicycle (19%). The neighbours i.e. the Belgians and Germans, cycle on average only 5 minutes per day, and other Europeans cycle even less. In the Netherlands, Slovenia and Italy, only 7 to 8 percent of the total travel time is spent on public transport. In most East European countries, traveling by public transport takes up 20% of all travel time. Incidentally, Dutch people think they commute longer than residents of other countries, but in reality things are better than they suppose. Commuters in Holland spend on average 2 minutes longer per day commuting than commuters do in other countries.

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