Traffic jams cost Dutch industry a record €1.4bn last year, according to research by Panteia on behalf of the transport sector lobby TLN.

The 2018 total is up 5.6% on 2017 and the biggest blackspot remains the daily jams on the A4 heading to The Hague, TLN said.

‘These figures should set off alarm bells in the cabinet,’ said chairwoman Elisabeth Post in a press release. ‘Jams continue to increase and some of the planned road improvements have been halted because of the nitrogen-based pollution crisis.’

Delft University transport policy professor Bert van Wee told RTL that the 2018 figure is about the same as that before the economic crisis of 10 years ago.

In addition, adding more asphalt is only making the problem worse, by encouraging people who use public transport to get back in their cars again, he said.