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Amsterdam making the city greener by reducing car traffic in the centre
Amsterdam has proposed new rules aimed at lowering the number of cars in the city centre.
Headed by Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema, city authorities proposed a ban on traffic in several streets, stressing the importance of diverting traffic away from the centre.
According to plans, interventions would be taken in the centre as well as areas outside the city core with the aim of rerouting traffic to the A10 motorway.
“The city is growing… the space is not,” Deputy Mayor Melanie van der Horst pointed out in an interview and added “with more people, we need to have different ways of living together.”
The number of residents increased roughly 189,000 since 2000, with Amsterdam authorities expecting additional 250,000 or so by 2050.
Van der Horst noted that public transport is slower when it shares infrastructure with private cars, adding that city authorities want to remove cars to speed up public transport and improve air quality.
She predicted that banning car traffic will not be expensive as roads would be blocked with large planting pots, stressing that the move would leave more room for pedestrians and cyclists as well as make the city greener.
Amsterdam is one of a group of EU cities that launched similar initiatives to curb car traffic, largely as part of a broader environmental push.
