The maximum speed limit on parts of the Amsterdam and Rotterdam ring roads is to be reduced again because of pollution risks, the AD reports on Tuesday.

In January a court in Amsterdam tore up the transport minister’s decision to increase the speed limit on Amsterdam’s ring road from 80 kph to 100 kph during the day.

The court ruled Melanie Shultz had not taken sufficient account of the health risks associated with faster traffic and should look at her decision again.

Precautions

The minister has now agreed to reduce the speed limit on the western part of the A10 and on the A13 at Rotterdam-Overschie from 100 kph back to 80 kph.

Although air pollution at the higher speed has remained within the legal limit, the minister is taking ‘precautions’, the AD says.

New tests carried out for the government show that although 100 kph on the A13 at Overschie does not yet break the pollution limit, air quality on this section will have reached its limit by January 1 2015.

Faster roads

Along the A10-west where the motorway passes between blocks of flats, the air quality is so bad that even lowering the speed limit to 80 kph will not prevent pollution from exceeding the legal limit, the AD said.

Schultz van Haegen has been announcing speed increases around the country and wants a third of motorways to have a maximum speed limit of 130 kph in the near future.

She has always said raising the speed limit on motorways has virtually no effect on air quality.