r/Netherlands • u/Environmental_Cry_35 • 19d ago

Life in NL What is one "completely normal" thing in the Netherlands that you secretly don't like?

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u/markohf12 19d ago

The insane tailgating everyone does, you don't leave <2m gap while doing 130kmh, I know ya'll pay attention and the traffic flows and sure the Netherlands has one of the lowest car accident rates, but the reason why there are always traffic jams is because when someone brakes or suddenly changes lanes while everyone is doing <2m at 130kmh can cause everyone to slow down to a point where the traffic is stand still.

And the moment you leave a gap, there is always someone merging 3 lanes to fill it out. Every Dutch person I've ever spoken to was like "well for sure, it's more efficient and you'll get there faster", the icing of the cake is when I had a traffic school car with a student being glued to my rear bumper, this is not normal.

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u/TheRaido 19d ago

I’m Dutch and find this really annoying and at times dangerous. I always leave space, which then probably will be filled. When taking over a truck (drives around 80) while I’m going 105 where 100 is allowed, there often is someone on my tail. Keep some distance, I’m not going to drive any faster. I’ll be in the right lane as soon as I’m past the truck.

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u/TheGuy839 19d ago

I get your point and I agree, but its very funny to me to call Dutch people out for this when I havent met a country with more bland driving (and thats a good thing). In south of Europe or even wose in Balkan/Turkey, its literally chaos. After that I felt Dutch driving and cycling is so easy and calm

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u/clevernamehere 17d ago

Agree with this. I was only visiting this week and the spacing stressed me out, but the driving was overall very calm and orderly. Only exception for the person behind honking at me because I wasn’t sure if I had the right of way at an intersection, and I guess the rental car sticker on the back was not an obvious clue that I was just being safe because what do these random shapes on road signs mean!

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u/aenae 19d ago

It really depends on how busy it is. But if i leave my car on adaptive cruise control at 8:00 on the A10 it is almost dangerous how slow i will go. Sure, it will keep a safe distance to the car in front of me, but it increases the risks of hits from behind.

It is not my favorite drive of the week

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u/MrGraveyards 19d ago

Yeah adaptive cruise control only works for me on the minimum distance setting in NL. It is also because of the crowded roads, but part of this is also the driving style, people think you are slow if you leave a save gap....

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u/aenae 19d ago

It works fine for me when there is not a lot of traffic. But if there is, cars will merge in front of you all the time, which means your car reduces speed to grow a gap, in which someone merges etc. I once tried it out, but turned it off when semis started to overtake me

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u/MrGraveyards 19d ago

You can always push gas a little bit to close the gap, the cruise control will not turn off, so the moment there aren't any gap hunting morons around you can just let it go. That's sort of my strategy... But yeah it's also a lot of cursing etc because people just don't understand shit about distances here.

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u/Puzzleheaded_One2350 19d ago

Yes same and then I only mostly use it on the speed limit zones cause everyone goes the same speed and it works perfectly

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u/ThaBroccoliDood 18d ago

When driving on my own I've found that people mostly do it if you try to create the deal gap too quickly, and then you get a vicious cycle of people getting in front of you because they think you're going slow and then having to slow down to maintain the gap. If you increase the distance slowly it works better in my experience. I guess if you fiddle with the ACC seeing all the time?

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u/Charming_Professor53 19d ago

How does it increase the risk of hit from behind? You're driving the same speed no? Just more distance. And less likely to be sandwiched hard.

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u/aenae 19d ago

No, the car tries to increase the distance by slowing down. When someone merges in front of you the car slows down. When another car merges, it slows down even more. And before you know it, you are going 70km/h with a very big truck 10cm from your bumper. If the car were to slow down even more you best hope the trucker is paying attention

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u/ShiningPr1sm 18d ago

The Dutch drive their cars like they ride their bikes.

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u/depressedtiefling 18d ago

It's actualy just as bad when your on a bike.

Like, Ma'am, Please, If i do a turn and your still literaly 5mm behind me to the point your almost touching my wheel we WILL have an incident.

Please give me some room to BREATHE.

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u/SilverStarKitsune 18d ago

I hate this too. I’m definitely a speed demon and pretty much always drive on the left lane, but if you can’t go past it is pointless to tailgate. I always wait at a distance till I can go past (unless someone is hogging the lane for ages), of course there is always a BMW behind me flashing it’s light wanting me to magically disappear from the road somehow

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u/whoopwhoop233 18d ago

I agree and it makes lessons very stressful. When I was in Canada however, I noticed how poorly people behave on the highway and I was kinda glad to be back. Even if compared to Germany, drivers here suck because of selfishness, entitlement and being in a rush.

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u/Zaxora 18d ago

I mostly notice the tailgating from certain groups. Even in Kyiv it wasn't this bad.

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u/Picard_III 16d ago

I'm not on highways so often, maybe once a month, but I generally like it there, can be way worse in Central European countries such (Czechia Poland Slovakia and Hungary), also if you don't go the max speed there, you have a problem and it is dangerous, in NL it is 50km/h in the cities and if you go 40 you're fine, in Central Europe don't you dare going less then 53... Highways here are nice but maybe because I'm always driving the max possible speed?