Netherlands to test how use of GPS can better direct traffic flow

THE HAGUE (AFP) — Researchers in the Netherlands will next year test a GPS navigation system aimed at preventing the international curse of motorway traffic jams by telling drivers which lane to move to.

Tests will be carried out as early as April on a 75-kilometre stretch of motorway passing through the Netherlands, from Germany to Belgium, which is popular with freight lorries.

“Traffic jams can be caused by a line of trucks,” Paul van Koningsbruggen from Dutch IT firm Technolution told AFP.

“It’s a chain reaction: when a car drives up behind a truck, it brakes, then the car behind brakes, this time a bit more, and so on, until a car some distance away has to almost come to a standstill, and that’s when you get a traffic jam,” he said.

By letting drivers know in time that they should change lanes and drive at a certain speed, researchers hope they can prevent traffic jams forming.