The Netherlands: No buses, few trains: public transport strike causes long jams - DutchNews.nl

A strike by public
transport workers on Tuesday has led to long traffic jams as commuters
turn to cars and taxis instead to get to work.

By 8 am there were 520 kilometres of slow-moving vehicles on the Dutch
roads, and traffic had ground to halt around Alkmaar and Rotterdam,
motoring organisation ANWB said.

Hashtags such as #meerijden and #liftaangeboden have become popular as
people seek to share rides. And in Amsterdam officials have opened the
IJ tunnel to bikes and mopeds, because there are no ferries over the IJ.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

A strike by public
transport workers on Tuesday has led to long traffic jams as commuters
turn to cars and taxis instead to get to work.

By 8 am there were 520 kilometres of slow-moving vehicles on the Dutch
roads, and traffic had ground to halt around Alkmaar and Rotterdam,
motoring organisation ANWB said.

Hashtags such as #meerijden and #liftaangeboden have become popular as
people seek to share rides. And in Amsterdam officials have opened the
IJ tunnel to bikes and mopeds, because there are no ferries over the IJ.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

A strike by public transport workers on Tuesday has led to long traffic jams as commuters turn to cars and taxis instead to get to work.

By 8 am there were 520 kilometres of slow-moving vehicles on the Dutch roads, and traffic had ground to halt around Alkmaar and Rotterdam, motoring organisation ANWB said.

Hashtags such as #meerijden and #liftaangeboden have become popular as people seek to share rides. And in Amsterdam officials have opened the IJ tunnel to bikes and mopeds, because there are no ferries over the IJ.

Read more at: No buses, few trains: public transport strike causes long jams - DutchNews.nl

Scotland - Independence beckons: Scottish independence now neck-and-neck, new post-Brexit poll shows – by Matthew Tempes

Support for Scottish independence in the wake of the Brexit referendum is now effectively neck-and-neck, according to a new poll released Wednesday (8 February).

The survey, for the Herald newspaper in Glasgow, puts support for independence at 49% and for the status quo at 51%, excluding don’t knows.

It comes against a backdrop of British Prime Minister successfully getting through a parliament a bill allowing MPs to vote on a final Brexit deal – but with very little consultation or safeguards against a so-called ‘Hard Brexit.’

Whilst still showing a theoretical victory for the status quo, it is within a statistical margin of error – and compares with the 2014 referendum result of 45% for independence and 55% against.

The seismic vote by the UK as a whole – but not Scotland, Northern Ireland or Gibraltar – to leave the EU  last year has brought fresh pressure on the Scottish National party minority government in Edinburgh to hold a fresh referendum.

That has increased with confirmation from Theresa May that Brexit will mean leaving the single market, and – as yet – no deal on the rights of EU workers in the UK, and vice-versa.

Alex Salmond, the SNP’s former leader, first minister, and foreign affairs spokesman for the party at the Westminster parliament, tweeted the result with the words “Game On.”

Read M<ore: Scottish independence now neck-and-neck, new post-Brexit poll shows – EurActiv.com

The Netherlands: speed cameras that cause traffic jams to be scrapped in the Netherlands

Speed cameras in the Netherlands might be there to encourage motorists to keep to the limit, but they actually cause traffic jams.

The Dutch transport ministry and police admit drivers often slam on the brakes when they see speed cameras, and the knock-on effect leads to more traffic. So from this week the new protocol is that when there is a danger of a queue, police will put away the speed cameras.

[People] brake, and that frequently has a domino effect on the drivers who are behind them,” Alfred van Beilen, an operations expert at the Dutch police, told NOS news. “That can in the end lead to traffic jams.”

He admitted that in the past “poor communication” meant speed cameras were left in place too long and said that the new protocol would help the roads run better in the Netherlands’ flat countryside.

The Dutch are tough on motorists who break the speed limit, with some of the highest traffic fines in Europe.
 
Read more: Speed cameras that cause traffic jams to be scrapped in the Netherlands | Motoring News | Lifestyle | The Independent