This summer, 550,000 people were fined for speeding after being caught in a police speed trap – a rise of nearly 50% on 2016, the AD said on Monday.

Much of the police effort focused on notorious parts of the highway network, including the A13 between Rotterdam and The Hague, the A4, A6, A7 and the N302, a provincial road which crosses Flevoland province.

‘We’ve had various problems over the past two years, as well as software issues, but we are now operating at full strength,’ national police force spokesman Egbert-Jan van Hasselt told the AD.

One reason so many people drive too fast is that modern cars are quiet and ‘you hardly notice how fast you are driving,’ Van Hasselt said. ‘It’s very easy to go 10 kph over the speed limit.’