If everything goes according to plan, 300 additional parking spaces for bicycles will be created on the edges of the shopping area in the city center of Assen from the spring of 2024. This is partly to relieve the burden on Koopmansplein as a ‘bicycle shed’.
The Municipal Executive wrote this in a letter to the municipal council. To facilitate current and future cyclists, the ‘bicycle parking’ project was started in 2022. The aim of this project is to create 300 additional bicycle parking spaces around the center (and near the cycling routes). The council has announced that recent counts have been used to determine where the demand for additional parking spaces is greatest. A number of locations emerged: the Minervanlaan, the Apollopad, the head of the Vaart, Nieuwehuizen and the Groningerstraat.
Sketch designs
B and W: “Sketch designs have been drawn up to make it possible to park bicycles at these locations. The possibility of securing the bicycle has been taken into account. These designs are currently being discussed with those involved at the designated locations, such as property owners and entrepreneurs. After these discussions have been completed, the final designs will follow. It is expected that the realization of the bicycle parking spaces will start in the spring of 2024.”
A special chapter in the parking of bicycles in the Asser center is the Koopmansplein, where there is often a maze of parked two-wheelers. A thorn in the side of, among others, the council factions of 50Plus and City Party PLOP, who submitted a motion last summer about ‘mass bicycle parking’ on the square.
Back of Hema
The parties proposed to the council to move the parking spaces for bicycles there to the back of the Hema. The council promised to investigate this possibility and now indicates that there are currently 140 bicycle parking spaces on the Koopmansplein itself, plus another 24 places in the bicycle racks at the front of the Hema. “Counts show that the parking spaces are well used. The motion proposes moving the locations to the back of Hema. There are currently 20 bicycle parking spaces at the back.” Research showed that these places are currently not or hardly used. “Our expectation is that creating parking spaces at the rear will only have an effect if the parking spaces on Koopmansplein disappear completely and that at the same time enforcement is carried out so that bicycles are no longer parked on Koopmansplein.”
Long-term
And the council does not (yet) like that. B and W also note that creating parking facilities behind the Hema is a temporary solution, while a long-term structural situation is preferred. “In the Inner City Vision, this area will be redeveloped in the future. Then it can also be seen whether bicycle parking can be arranged here.”
For the time being, the council expects that the creation of the 300 additional bicycle parking spaces will create sufficient space to accommodate current and future cyclists. “We can also make the bicycle parking location in the basement of DNK more visible to relieve the Koopmansplein.”