Workshop SP 4, Wednesday 21 June, 14.00 - 15.30

Public space and built environment

Adriaan Walraad, interim traffic department head, Municipality of Lelystad Rene Both, traffic engineer, Municipality of Lelystad Bicycle as a part of town planning in Lelystad The town of Lelystad is a young town, build as a super- centre for urban growth in the newly reclaimed polder Flevoland in the Netherlands. After a quick and prosperous growth the town consolidated and after that the town has even known a brief period of slight decline. The poor years are over now and the town is flourishing again. The town is growing again, both employment and housing. Ambitions for Lelystad are described in 'vision on a special town'. The is characterised by a separated-traffic system: slow traffic only merges with other traffic in urban areas. Slow traffic crosses the traffic arteries (an orthogonal system of 'dreven') by bridges of tunnels. The town is crammed for growth in next decade. The urban growth demands both a re-organisation of the traffic department of the council of Lelystad and the wording of a new policy and vision on mobility and the traffic-system. The introduction of human standards is brought in practice in a town that was designed by a group of mechanical thinking engineers. This contribution describes two practises: a revaluation of the traffic-arteries and a revaluation of the bicycle-network based on the principle of 'local traffic achievement'. In this approach fast traffic and slow traffic are seen as complementary in the town planning.

Hugo Poelstra, transport planner, Municipality of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Cycle traffic in Amsterdam urban planning Using a number of examples, this presentation will deal with the way in which Amsterdam has handled the role of the bike in new urban planning. Town planning and urban design are important determining factors for bike use. Opinions about the relationship between urban developments and the traffic and transport system (which the bike is part of) have changed somewhat in urban expansions of the last 30 to 40 years. This has to do with all kinds of factors that, over the years, can have a different character or weight: land use and densities, design standards, access policy, available budgets, planning process, local topography and not least, the vision and personal views of the planners, designers and managers involved (possibly influenced by the population). The results are therefore often very different, as will be seen from the comparison (and where possible, evaluation) of examples. An important development is that the quality of public space has become an increasingly important point of concern and that separation of different types of traffic - depending on level of scale - has become less and less automatic.