Prisoners serving sentences of institutionalized psychiatric care may soon have to wear an ankle monitor when they are on leave from the psychiatric clinic treating them. Minister Sander Dekker for Legal Protection announced that the government will experiment with this starting in the fall, RTL Nieuws reports.
The electronic monitoring tool is currently only used in the prison system. The ankle monitor keeps track of where the wearer is, recording his or her movements.
A drone intended to transport medicine to the island of Schiermonnikoog, crashed in the Wadden Sea during a test flight, Dagblad van het Noorden reports based on government documents. As this was a test flight, the drone had no medication on board.
According to the documents, the TU Delft drone was given the instruction to land while it was still 1.1 kilometers away from the landing platform. As a result, the drone fell 80 meters from the sky and into the ocean. As the drone's coordinates were known, it was quickly found and recovered by a ship.
NS will experiment with high speed intercity trains on the route between Amsterdam and Groningen next year. If the experiment succeeds, the high speed trains may be included in the 2021 timetable. "For example, twice an hour as a rush hour train", NS said, NOS reports.
Amsterdam finds the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation unfeasible and "risky to public order". The municipality would like to participate in the experiment, but only with other rules, mayor Femke Halsema said in a letter to Ministers Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security and Bruno Bruins for Medical Care and Sports, NOS reports.
The province of Noord-Holland performed an experiment with seven cars that can communicate with each other and with traffic lights in the first week of September. This is the first such experiment in the Netherlands, according to the province, NU.nl reports.
The experiment was done on the N205 at Hoofddorp and Haarlem. The cars are connected to each other, so they can pass information about when they accelerate or brake between each other. They also communicate with traffic lights, so they know how long it will take a traffic light to change.
ProRail is expanding its experiment with bright yellow-colored railway crossings after a first test in Baarn proved to be successful. According to ProRail, road users used the yellow crossing in Baarn more carefully, the number of incidents decreased, and the yellow crossing also strengthened the sense of security, NU.nl reports.
If it is up to interim mayor Jozias van Aartsen, Amsterdam will not participate in an experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. According to him, the situation in the Dutch capital deviates too much from that in other municipalities, Het Parool reports.
Refugees with a scientific background may soon find it easier to find work in the Dutch academic world. Science financier NWO in The Hague is launching an experiment in which refugee scientists can get an appointment with a Dutch research group, NOS reports.
This experiment involves 750 thousand euros, enough to appoint eight to 15 people with a master's or doctor's degree for a year. The program, called Refugees in Science, was established in cooperation with KNAW, De Jonge Akademie and and the Dutch foundation for Refugee Students.
Between six and 10 Dutch municipalities will experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation and sale, according to a bill sent to the police, the Public Prosecutor and the Association of Dutch municipalities, among others, the Volkskrant reports.
The experiment will last for five years and two months, one year of which will be used on preparation. Cannabis cultivators will be recruited through a tender. For the period of the experiment, they will only be allowed to grow weed for the experiment, and not for other sales.
Rail manager ProRail will start experimenting with self-driving trains on several routes next year. The first test involves freight trains on the Betuwe-line. And the first experiment with passenger trains will happen in the province of Groningen, NOS reports.
The freight trains tests will be done in cooperation with Alstom, a company that is developing a system for automatic train operation. The experiment in Groningen will be done in collaboration with transit company Arriva and the province of Groningen.
The municipality of The Hague is conducting an experiment this New Year's in which local residents can declare their street, square of playground a firework-free zone. Residents will have to enforce the ban themselves, and the municipality will provide signs to mark the zone. The experiment will be held in Scheveningen, ANP reports.
NS and ProRail's experiment with running a train every 10 minutes on the route between Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Bosch and Eindhoven, is showing very positive first results. The trains run mostly on time and cancellations are on par with the national average, ANP reports.
On December 29th, an experiment will start with running night subways in Rotterdam and its surrounding areas. For one year, transit company RET will run subways on all lines for an hour longer on Fridays and Saturdays. This means that the last subway will leave Rotterdam at 1:30 a.m., AD reports.
The police are planning an experiment in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht in which they will more intensely target ATM bombers and ram-raiders. The experiment involves stopping these criminals by following them very obviously and annoyingly, taking their illegally earned money and also keeping an eye on their family members, NOS reports.
An increasing number of Dutch prisons are taking part in an experiment in which certain prisoners are given more freedom of movement and responsibility. The idea is to prod prisoners into becoming more self-sufficient. But the prison guards are worried that the experiment is only giving the detainees more freedom to conduct their criminal business within the prison walls, they said to newspaper AD.
The city of Amsterdam is launching an experiment on Monday in which surveillance cameras and WiFi sensors will be used to snap pictures in the Red Light District to monitor crowds. In this way the municipality wants to find out whether it is necessary to better manage the flow of people through the area, to prevent unmanageable crowds, AD reports.
The experiment starts Monday and lasts for four weeks. It will be done in Stoofsteeg, Oudekennissteeg and part of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal.
The Dutch police are launching an experiment next week in which police officers in Rotterdam, Zwolle and Amersfoort will be equipped with tasers. In the coming weeks over 300 officers will undergo a two day training course on how to use a taser safely, and will then be allowed to use the weapon on the street if necessary, NOS reports.
Dutch pharmaceuticals and oncologists are teaming up in a new experiment to test experimental cancer drugs on patients quickly and safely. Pharmaceuticals will make their cancer drugs available to oncologists, who in exchange will let them know how patients react to the medicines
Amsterdam residents may soon be able to enjoy a beer or glass of wine while having their hair cut. The capital city wants to join the Association of Dutch Municipalities' experiment hybrid forms of shops and restaurants
The Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam has launched an experiment in which cancer patients receive their chemotherapy treatments at home, instead of in the hospital.
A Groningen foundation has collected 12 thousand euros through crowdfunding for an experiment to see what would happen if you give a person a basic income for one year. The first lucky person to receive this basic income is Frans Kerver from Feerwerd.
The Mayor and aldermen of Amsterdam are discussing opportunities for potentially regulating cannabis cultivation, even though the Dutch members of parliament voted against allowing municipalities to do so just last week, AT5 reported on Tuesday.
An experimental project has rolled out in an attempt to persevere barn owls in the Netherlands. Younger, inexperienced owls are often killed by oncoming traffic while hunting mice on Dutch highways.
The first experiments of the entirely new system can be used at the Parliamentary elections in 2017, minister Ronald Plasterk of Internal Affairs said on Friday after a ministerial council meeting.
