Against the backdrop of several societal crises currently taking place in the Netherlands – the climate crisis, the nitrogen crises, several health-related crises, and the housing crisis – a potential new crisis is already in the making: congestion. Since COVID-19, commuting has picked up like never before, traffic jams are at record length, and public transportation is creeping toward full capacity. A crisis of congestion would not merely be one of daily annoyance and discomfort, it would also be one that strains our infrastructure, environment, climate, health, and labor productivity. Calls to increase capacity (i.e. widen roads, lengthen or heighten train) are ill-informed. Such interventions only attract more traffic and also are increasingly inefficient given that most infrastructure is underused during slow hours. The only real – and evidencebased – solution to congestion problems is peak spreading.

Peak spreading – like other transitions – requires behavioral transformations in citizens; transformations that can best be instigated by combining economic and psychological insights into motivations for, and resistance toward, change. This is where the interdisciplinary team behind this project adds its value: Erik Verhoef is a leading researcher in transport economics, with a proven track record in developing solutions for urban transport. Ivar Vermeulen is a persuasion researcher, studying not only how attitudes and behavior can be changed, but also how resistance to change can be effectively addressed.

The current project proposes to combine these insights to design a large-scale peak spreading experiment in one of the key hubs of Dutch congestion (the Amsterdam Zuidas), and in its key traveler hub (the VU). The project team will be supported by two public transport companies (GvB; NS) to obtain traveler volume data. The team has will also request from the VU directorship, in line with its determination of being responsible in containing the university’s negative societal impacts.

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