Workshop SP 2, Tuesday 20 June, 14.00 - 15.30

Urban Renewal

Ton Schaap, Urban planner, Dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening Amsterdam, The Netherlands Urban Renewal Cycling is important in Amsterdam. The city is heavily built-up, the functions are mixed. Many destinations are therefore within cycling distance. The dense building dates from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. There are no high-rise buildings as in other major cities, but compact building, five storeys high, with narrow streets or quays alongside the canals. This arrangement, with streets fifteen to twenty metres wide with buildings fifteen metres tall on either side, provides a favourable wind-free climate for the cyclist. In some new expansion areas, such as Oostelijk Havengebied and IJburg, these same characteristics are observed, but now with the additional factor of the car to be considered. Along the busier streets are separate cycle paths, while different types of traffic are mixed in the quieter streets, sometimes with special amenities for cyclists, as in the plan for IJburg's Haveneiland. Cars are to be parked under the houses. When redesigning the streets of the existing city, it is sometimes difficult to provide separate lanes for each type of traffic: pedestrians, cyclists, cars and trams. The streets are simply too narrow to allow this. The choices made are usually at the expense the pedestrian. Pavements are made narrower, trees are felled. This contribution is a plea for a different approach.

Addy Jonker, Traffic Consultant, Dutch Cyclists' Union, Amsterdam division, The Netherlands Technical Excursion Jan van Galenstraat: Cycling trough the nineteenth century districts; Amsterdam's bicycle policy in practice This paper serves as an introduction to one of the 'technical excursions', a tour which gives an impression of how Amsterdam's bicycle policy works in practice. The most important topic to be considered is the 'Main Cycle Network', a network of through cycle routes. The Amsterdam policy is based on a desire to separate cycle routes from those used by through traffic, since this will result in more pleasant routes. However, it has not been possible to achieve this in every case, since sometimes no alternative route is available. In the nineteenth-century districts in particular, where the road width between the buildings on either side of the street is limited, the many claims made on the space available have hindered the realisation of separate cycle routes. Such difficulties are amply demonstrated by Jan van Galenstraat, a major thoroughfare for both cyclists and motorized traffic between the city centre and the outlying districts to the west. It was almost twenty years before this route could be improved for cyclists During the presentation, detailed consideration will be given to various aspects of this project and the problems which arose. Other topics to be examined include bicycle parking and storage, signposting and traffic lights. Much of the route of our excursion is within the nineteenth-century areas of the city (including the Vondelpark and the newly redesigned Museumplein), where a number of major cycle routes have recently been established. However, it also takes in the new commercial district to the south (the 'Zuidas') and part of the city centre itself. Along the way, we shall see various technical improvements both great and small which enable better through-flow of bicycle traffic. In many cases it is the small details which determine the quality of a cycle route. A booklet describing the route of this excursion is available.

Claude Morel Report Workshop SP 2