Driving in the Netherlands is shaped by two unusual rules that catch foreign drivers off guard. The first is the daytime motorway cap: since March 2020, the maximum on every Dutch autosnelweg drops to 100 km/h between 06:00 and 19:00 — the so-called spitsmaatregel introduced under the Stikstofcrisis (nitrogen-emissions ruling).
From 19:00 to 06:00 the limit reverts to 120 or 130 km/h depending on the section. The first cracks in the daytime cap appeared on 14 April 2025, when Infrastructure Minister Madlener restored 24-hour 130 km/h on roughly 117 km of motorway: parts of the A6 (Lelystad-Noord — Ketelbrug), most of the Afsluitdijk on the A7, the A7 Winschoten — German border, and the A37 Holsloot — Zwartemeer.
Everywhere else, 100 km/h is the daytime ceiling, enforced by the matrix gantries that hang over every kilometre of the Randstad arteries A2, A4, A12, A20 and A27.
The second shock is the cyclist's structural priority. In any built-up area, a fietser (cyclist) coming from your right has right of way at unsignalised junctions, and the fietsstraat road type — a red-asphalt street where the sign "auto te gast" makes motorists the guest — caps cars to 30 km/h and forbids overtaking bicycles.
The 30 km/h zone has also expanded sharply: Amsterdam made 80% of its road network 30 km/h on 8 December 2023, and Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam are extending similar regimes.
City-centre access has tightened too. Amsterdam's zero-emissiezone for vans and trucks took effect inside the S100 inner ring on 1 January 2025, with planned expansion to the full A10 ring in 2028; Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and 14 other municipalities have parallel ZE-zones live as of 1 January 2026.
Conventional milieuzones for diesel cars still apply in Amsterdam, Arnhem, Den Haag and Utrecht.
A handful of practicalities are worth knowing. There is no general motorway toll; the only car tolls are the Kiltunnel (€2 cash, €1.45 Telecard), the A24 Blankenburgverbinding (€1.57 via licence-plate e-tol, opened December 2024) and — for vehicles over three metres tall — the Westerscheldetunnel, which has been toll-free for passenger cars since 1 January 2025.
CJIB raised almost every traffic fine by roughly 4% on 1 January 2026, rounded to the nearest €10.
Reviewed by Pawan Priyadarshi
Founder of AutoviaTest · About the editor
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