The artist’s impression of the renovated Herengracht in Amsterdam resembles a painting by Gerrit Berckheyde, whose 17th-century cityscapes hang in the Rijksmuseum. Sidewalks and parking spaces have disappeared, children play in the street, an old man muses on a chair along the water’s edge. A Unesco idyll in which the car is emphatically absent.
Much nicer to live in, you would say, compared to the current full parking spaces, cars driving in circles, vans parked on the sidewalk and haphazardly abandoned bicycles, cargo bikes and electric mini-cars. There is little space for pedestrians along the canals. Yet resident Thijs ten Raa is not happy with this part of the municipal Agenda Car-free†
‘The nuisance in front of my door will increase’, says the 69-year-old economics teacher at Utrecht University. ‘It’s already sometimes Blijburg aan de Gracht here: local residents who fold out tables along the waterfront, tourists who use drugs and we can clean up the mess in the morning.’ In addition, Ten Raa expects more cut-through traffic (the canal will only become parking-free) because through roads elsewhere are closed. “I wouldn’t let my kid play in the street here.”
No longer driving across the city
The situation at the head of the Herengracht is typical of the fight against the car in the capital. The municipality wants to create more space for pedestrians, cyclists and extra greenery. The council of GroenLinks, PvdA and D66 expects this to lead to a more liveable city with better air quality, less noise pollution and healthier inhabitants. That is why the city council is cutting and cutting through roads, among other things, so that motorists can no longer drive straight through the city. Seven to ten thousand parking spaces will also be scrapped; residents can keep track of the score per district on the municipal website. In short, the college is in a hurry.
‘I’m seeing this for the first time and I’m speechless,’ says official Joyce Zwaan at the new Stamp Park near the Royal Palace. The Autoluw program manager looks with satisfaction at the graceful footpaths, sown gardens and the fresh green grass between the tram rails. “This was a parking lot and a busy road. Now you can sit on a bench or play with the kids in that new fountain.’ According to Zwaan, this is immediately a water storage facility to make the city more climate-proof. ‘I’m not against cars, I have a car myself, but public space is limited while the number of residents and visitors is growing.’ The fewer moving and parked cars, says Zwaan, the more room for urban oases such as the new Post Stamp Park.
Low-traffic is something different from car-free, according to policy official Wiard Kuné. He points to a narrow service road that runs around the new park. “You can still load and unload here, but you’ll end up in the same place again.” That trick is reminiscent of the way Spanish Barcelona closed residential areas to through traffic; that city is explicitly mentioned as an example in the new coalition agreement of Amsterdam. Kuné: ‘In the long term, it is possible that we will make loops from the Ring Road, as stated in the 2050 Environmental Vision. Anyone who still wants to move from one neighborhood to another must first return to the highway.’
The aim of such measures is to make the car less attractive as a means of transport, especially in the city centre. There are already far fewer visitors since the increase in the parking rate to 7.50 euros per hour. The city council is also looking for ways to convince the 17,880 parking permit holders in the center to get rid of their cars, or at least put them in a parking garage.
‘We now have to deliver orders that do not fit on a bicycle’
According to Kuné, the average car is parked on the street 90 percent of the time. ‘Loss aversion plays a role. We take something away without the citizen immediately experiencing the benefit.’ Zwaan: ‘There is often a lot of resistance at consultation evenings. Especially among entrepreneurs. But if we go ahead with such a project, in the form of a pilot, nobody wants to go back to the old situation a year later.’
‘Well, it has indeed turned out beautiful’, says the owner of a kiosk that has been standing on the corner of the famous Bloemenmarkt, near the recently closed Muntplein, for fifty years. ‘But when I get fresh flowers at the auction in Aalsmeer, I don’t get them unloaded before eleven o’clock in the morning.’ He points to a large camera on a facade. ‘Will I get a fine of 120 euros three times a week from now on?’ The owner of lamp shop Aurora: ‘It turned out nice, but we now have to deliver orders that don’t fit on a bicycle’. For the same reason, the dry cleaners bought a three-wheeled Piaggo further down the road, which screeched along the sidewalk.
All struggles, says urban planner Daan Zandbelt, which every city has to go through. ‘We once laughed at the fact that we were able to penetrate into the center of cities by car,’ says the former Government Advisor for the Physical Living Environment. “It’s also weird that you want to park your car in front of the door, if you only use that thing once every two weeks.”
According to Zandbelt, the higher the population density, the fewer car kilometers are travelled. ‘Why should you, when you can choose from ten thousand jobs and ten supermarkets in the area?’ That is why, according to him, inner cities will automatically become car-free, as can be seen in Barcelona, Paris or London, for example. ‘It is a natural process that Amsterdam is trying to speed up a bit.’
According to professor of city logistics Walther Ploos van Amstel (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), ‘no one is against fewer cars in the city’. Unfortunately, he says there is no sound plan. ‘Start with an analysis of the current situation – what problems do you want to solve? – and formulate goals you want to achieve.’
‘We must dare to share space’
According to Ploos van Amstel, the municipality relies too heavily on license plate research with cameras. ‘Then you miss all cyclists and pedestrians.’ He argues for more research into the interests of visitors, residents and entrepreneurs. ‘Only then can you foresee the consequences of a cut.’ Ploos van Amstel agrees with the reduction of the maximum speed to 30 kilometers per hour in Amsterdam, so that car and bicycle traffic can be mixed. In his view, the new municipal council is also rightly investigating the possibility of introducing a maximum speed limit for cyclists. ‘We must dare to share space. The cycle path has had its day.’
According to Ploos van Amstel, the head of the Herengracht is a good example of Amsterdam’s snap-happy approach. ‘It’s opportunism. It’s thoughtless.’ According to the lecturer, there was a substantiated plan for reducing the number of parking spaces for that neighbourhood, signed by all parties. ‘You can’t suddenly turn that into a parking-free canal. Of course there will be resistance.’
Resident Ten Raa also thinks a car-free city center is a great idea. ‘I can take the train to work in Utrecht. But my wife has difficulty walking and can’t always walk to a parking garage.’ It bothers him that a difficult compromise with the municipality is simply replaced by a new paving plan. “We assumed we could continue to live in this quiet neighborhood. We even had an elevator built to age-proof our house.’