Following the Bijlmer disaster he picked up the nickname Bijlmerboy, due to his vociferous insistence on a full parliamentary inquiry into the aftereffects of the crash.

He was also the only PvdA representative to vote against the motion of Ad Melkert, calling on the government to learn the lessons of the failings in the handling of the Bijlmer disaster.

[2] The program revealed that a cartel of the largest building contractors in The Netherlands had been defrauding the ministry of public works, the Nederlandse Spoorwegen and Schiphol Airport for years; the total damage was between 500 million and one billion guilders.

In the fraud affair, Van Gijzel had often and openly opposed PvdA Minister Tineke Netelenbos of public works and Benk Korthals of justice.

After losing the mayoral race, he started a political advisory agency called Politea, together with his wife Irene van Rijsewijk.

The citizens of Eindhoven were allowed to vote in an advisory referendum on 23 January 2008, with a choice between Van Gijzel and fellow PvdA party member Leen Verbeek.