By Courtesy of Amsterdam City
Many European cities are redesigning roads, or even entire neighborhoods, to encourage walking and cycling instead of road traffic. Amsterdam is a prime example, with a major new project designed to provide its residents with much healthier living and transportation spaces.
Many European cities are redesigning roads, or even entire neighborhoods, to encourage walking and cycling instead of road traffic. Amsterdam is a prime example, with a major new project designed to provide its residents with much healthier living and transportation spaces.
The Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal is a famous thoroughfare in the Dutch capital, on which the Royal Palace and the Amsterdam Museum are located. It is now being transformed into a modern, green and pleasant thoroughfare. This vast project has been named "Oranje Loper" or "orange carpet," in reference to the "red carpet," a road between Amsterdam's central station and the south of the city that has already been rebuilt in a similar way.
The first part of the project is already finished. Here, what was once a road has been transformed into a mini-park, with asphalt replaced by vegetation and green spaces for relaxing, playing or dog walking. All around, there are now green, planted areas, running along the streetcar line, with more trees, new bicycle paths and pedestrian areas. To save space, dozens of parking bays have been removed and only a few remain today, for deliveries or for disabled users, for example.
Work on the entire route is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2024. This road, which is very busy with traffic, will thus gradually be transformed into a pleasant and much healthier space for urban life. No less than nine bridges are involved in this renovation. The old service streets on either side of this traffic route are now the only lanes where cars are allowed to travel, with a speed limit of 30 km/h.
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