|
Abstract
|
The city of Amsterdam has one of the largest and most intensely used historic centres in Europe. This centre, designed in the seventeenth century, was of course not built for cars.
The increasing number of cars has been causing problems for a few decades already. There is not enough room for all types of traffic in one narrow street. The city's canal structure has long been used intensively to transport cargo of all kinds aboard boats of all kinds. At the turn of the twentieth century, the city was forced to adapt to automobile traffic and several canals were filled in. The main canals, however, remained largely intact, and today no one would dare to propose adapting the historic city centre structure to the needs of the motor car.
In 1993, the city of Amsterdam published a scheme to reduce car traffic in the historical city centre. This article describes the backgrounds and origins of the scheme; its relation with a local referendum, held in 1992 on the subject of traffic reduction; the objectives; a sustainable form of transport for a thriving economic city centre; the main elements of the scheme itself; its impact on the city's economy and on environmental qualities, the way public support has been created; and finally the results of the decision-making process. (A) |