AmsterdamUrban mobility
Amsterdam’s strategy for optimising public space | Interview with Willem van Heijningen
Monday, 15 July 2024
Willem van Heijningen is a Strategist at the Department of Mobility & Public Space at the City of Amsterdam. One of his main tasks is to find and develop innovative new ways in which the city can make the best use of its public space and spatial development. In a city as tightly packed as Amsterdam, van Heijningen has, to coin a phrase, got his work cut out. Or in other words, this is not a job for the faint hearted.
In a recent interview with Intertraffic, Anjes Tjarks, the Minister for Mobility for the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, was asked if he looked at other European cities for inspiration and if so was there any particular focus on cities that shared Hamburg’s topography as much as the layout of the city. He cited Copenhagen and Rotterdam in his answer, but when the interview finished he also made reference to Amsterdam. A major river flowing through the city centre, an abundance of bridges… the similarities are there for all to see. Willem van Heijningen, while not returning the comparison, cites a number of examples of cities he and his team use as placemaking inspiration.
“There are 430 cities in Europe with populations of more than 100,000 people and I’ve worked together with a few of them - mostly with the likes of Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, London. So I'm looking at cities with the highest density and also the scarcest space,” he says. “When you have the largest restrictions, or the biggest challenges, this is where you need to be the most creative. This is when you have to do things differently because the way you have been working has become unsustainable. I'm interested in the city where the challenges are great because that’s where the urgent need to change is the highest. Tallinn in Estonia is a great example of a city that is inspirational in digital technology. Helsinki is another.”
Despite working for and living in a city of 0.9 million people, van Heijningen takes inspiration from cities of all sizes, not just those that are of a similar size to Amsterdam.
“No, I've looked at all sorts of different cities. From the smaller ones you can learn how they approached the topic and in some cases you find that the silos aren't that big, so they actually have more people who are doing more integral things. That can be very helpful for a larger city where things may be more fragmented.”
“Our city is growing. We have more inhabitants, we have more people working here… more tourists coming into our city. And of course along with the growth we also need to get more goods and materials into the city. So it's getting more crowded, so the density of Amsterdam is rising. And in the meantime, we have to maintain our city,” he adds with a hint of a warning. “This means that we have to transform our city, because we have too much infrastructure for mobility. Amsterdam was full of cars in the 1970s, but now we’ve gently moved them a little bit to get a few less cars in the city. So we built the garages… but we also reduced the amount of parking space in the streets. We've famously got a huge amount of bicycles on the streets of Amsterdam, but now so much that that they cause nuisance too. In both cases, cars and bikes, parking is more space consuming and attracts more attention in making space for other functions.
The dichotomy of a healthy (in socioeconomic terms), growing city and not having the room to reap the benefits is one that the likes of van Heijningen wrestles with on a daily basis.
“You mentioned green streets – we need far more green in our streets to become climate adaptive. We need more trees to keep our streets cool on hotter days. We have drainage issues, getting the water from rainfall into the soil. So we need a different approach to water management, that’s for sure. But the main issue is that Amsterdam is getting more crowded, so we're seeing that we have to use our public space in a different way in order to accommodate all the movement of people and goods. We look at things that take up public space, such as the privately owned cars that stand still for most of the time. We are reducing the amount of cars for exactly that reason.”
“Well, there's a couple of things here,” van Heijningen suggests. “You have two ways of looking at it - networks or mobility. So you can see that cars are not using public space effectively and then you see mass transit or smaller vehicles, like bicycles or mopeds or best of all walking is making less use of public space for movements. So you're more or less always looking at how are we going to divide this? And then of course, there's the economics of the city. When you're making developments that need different types of infrastructure, you also need those developments to pay for the transformation of infrastructure and public space. So if we have a large area of development, then from that area of development comes money into the public sector to change your infrastructure.”
Van Heijningen confirms this to be the case. “Here again the issue is the division of space,” he states. “If you can't pay for it, you're not making it. So of course you do it but you want the people to have access to all kinds of functions and therefore to be mobile, so the first thing is if you reduce parking, to be able to fit in all the other city functions, then you have also to have to offer a suitable alternative. We have a comparatively small, flat city, where you can cycle everywhere. And I think we also have a rather good public transport system that makes it possible to go everywhere by public transit as well. So therefore, we have the ability to reduce the amount of cars going around in our city because, let’s face it, it's very costly to have a car so therefore, there's less demand in the city to have a one.”
“I’ve been a strategist for the City of Amsterdam for a couple of years now, but prior to that I was combining being a client for all kinds of infrastructural projects, and programmes on logistics, coach movements into the city and mobility hubs. So I've been doing all kinds of things for the city.”
Whatever it is that van Heijningen does, he starts by asking the same set of questions, beginning with ‘why are we doing this? Is this future-proof? Is this really contributing to the city and it’s inhabitants?’
“You need to view challenges, strategies and measures from all kinds of perspectives,” he says. “Urban freight, for instance, causes a lot of risks and nuisance in cities. For that the cities impose measures like emission zones, time windows for loading and unloading and, in the case of Amsterdam, weight restrictions to prevent damage to the very old quays and bridges built for pedestrians, carts and carriages.”
So how should transport companies enable the city to be cleaner, lighter and to see fewer movements?
“People and businesses still need their supplies. So you can’t think of the measures to reduce the risks and the nuisance alone. You have to think about an alternative as well. What kind of plan for this alternative urban logistics system would that be? Who is responsible for realising this? How do you do this together with the transport companies, the businesses? How can technology, digitilisation, smart charging, all kinds of different vehicles, transport over water, logistic hubs, have a role in this?”
Van Heijningen continues: “I am very curious about developments in technology, in economics and socially, to see how to translate that into public space and how to put what’s happening into words - how to organise mobility. I very much enjoy being involved in things that matter for society. So that's what keeps me ticking - to do something good for society.”
In a recent interview with Intertraffic, Anjes Tjarks, the Minister for Mobility for the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, was asked if he looked at other European cities for inspiration and if so was there any particular focus on cities that shared Hamburg’s topography as much as the layout of the city. He cited Copenhagen and Rotterdam in his answer, but when the interview finished he also made reference to Amsterdam. A major river flowing through the city centre, an abundance of bridges… the similarities are there for all to see. Willem van Heijningen, while not returning the comparison, cites a number of examples of cities he and his team use as placemaking inspiration.
“There are 430 cities in Europe with populations of more than 100,000 people and I’ve worked together with a few of them - mostly with the likes of Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, London. So I'm looking at cities with the highest density and also the scarcest space,” he says. “When you have the largest restrictions, or the biggest challenges, this is where you need to be the most creative. This is when you have to do things differently because the way you have been working has become unsustainable. I'm interested in the city where the challenges are great because that’s where the urgent need to change is the highest. Tallinn in Estonia is a great example of a city that is inspirational in digital technology. Helsinki is another.”
When you have the largest restrictions, or the biggest challenges, this is where you need to be the most creative. This is when you have to do things differently
Despite working for and living in a city of 0.9 million people, van Heijningen takes inspiration from cities of all sizes, not just those that are of a similar size to Amsterdam.
“No, I've looked at all sorts of different cities. From the smaller ones you can learn how they approached the topic and in some cases you find that the silos aren't that big, so they actually have more people who are doing more integral things. That can be very helpful for a larger city where things may be more fragmented.”
MAKING A SPACE FOR SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT
So how does van Heijningen, who describes his role as a connector of content, people and organisations, see the subject of “placemaking” in Amsterdam panning out? How do you create more public space? What happens to the cars that are displaced by creating a green street, for example?“Our city is growing. We have more inhabitants, we have more people working here… more tourists coming into our city. And of course along with the growth we also need to get more goods and materials into the city. So it's getting more crowded, so the density of Amsterdam is rising. And in the meantime, we have to maintain our city,” he adds with a hint of a warning. “This means that we have to transform our city, because we have too much infrastructure for mobility. Amsterdam was full of cars in the 1970s, but now we’ve gently moved them a little bit to get a few less cars in the city. So we built the garages… but we also reduced the amount of parking space in the streets. We've famously got a huge amount of bicycles on the streets of Amsterdam, but now so much that that they cause nuisance too. In both cases, cars and bikes, parking is more space consuming and attracts more attention in making space for other functions.
The dichotomy of a healthy (in socioeconomic terms), growing city and not having the room to reap the benefits is one that the likes of van Heijningen wrestles with on a daily basis.
Amsterdam was full of cars in the 1970s, but now we’ve gently moved them to get a few less vehicles in the city. So we built garages… but we also reduced the amount of parking space in the streets
“You mentioned green streets – we need far more green in our streets to become climate adaptive. We need more trees to keep our streets cool on hotter days. We have drainage issues, getting the water from rainfall into the soil. So we need a different approach to water management, that’s for sure. But the main issue is that Amsterdam is getting more crowded, so we're seeing that we have to use our public space in a different way in order to accommodate all the movement of people and goods. We look at things that take up public space, such as the privately owned cars that stand still for most of the time. We are reducing the amount of cars for exactly that reason.”
NETWORKS OR MOBILITY?
There are a seemingly endless supply of ideas of how to utilise (rather than use) but how do you go about physically doing that and turning streets into pedestrian walkways, or turning a disused railway line into a linear park? The ideas are great, of course, but the physical requires funding so where does that come from?“Well, there's a couple of things here,” van Heijningen suggests. “You have two ways of looking at it - networks or mobility. So you can see that cars are not using public space effectively and then you see mass transit or smaller vehicles, like bicycles or mopeds or best of all walking is making less use of public space for movements. So you're more or less always looking at how are we going to divide this? And then of course, there's the economics of the city. When you're making developments that need different types of infrastructure, you also need those developments to pay for the transformation of infrastructure and public space. So if we have a large area of development, then from that area of development comes money into the public sector to change your infrastructure.”
When you're making developments that need different types of infrastructure, you also need those developments to pay for the transformation of infrastructure and public space
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PARKING
Every city official that Intertraffic speaks to at some point steers the conversation towards the often-controversial topic of parking. What, we asked van Heijningen, are some of the innovative measures that Amsterdam are currently looking at bringing in or have already brought in, bearing in mind that the city is dominated by its network of canals and crossings, narrow streets barely wide enough to accommodate bicycles, let alone cars and vans. It must be a really difficult city in which to plan something new and innovative.Van Heijningen confirms this to be the case. “Here again the issue is the division of space,” he states. “If you can't pay for it, you're not making it. So of course you do it but you want the people to have access to all kinds of functions and therefore to be mobile, so the first thing is if you reduce parking, to be able to fit in all the other city functions, then you have also to have to offer a suitable alternative. We have a comparatively small, flat city, where you can cycle everywhere. And I think we also have a rather good public transport system that makes it possible to go everywhere by public transit as well. So therefore, we have the ability to reduce the amount of cars going around in our city because, let’s face it, it's very costly to have a car so therefore, there's less demand in the city to have a one.”
We have the ability to reduce the amount of cars going around in our city because we have a good public transport system and, let’s face it, it's very costly to have a car so therefore, there's less demand in the city to have a one
FROM CLIENT TO THE CITY
As for van Heijningen himself, his career path has taken him from the public sector into the private sector and back. His motivation is to contribute to socially relevant activities and projects.“I’ve been a strategist for the City of Amsterdam for a couple of years now, but prior to that I was combining being a client for all kinds of infrastructural projects, and programmes on logistics, coach movements into the city and mobility hubs. So I've been doing all kinds of things for the city.”
Whatever it is that van Heijningen does, he starts by asking the same set of questions, beginning with ‘why are we doing this? Is this future-proof? Is this really contributing to the city and it’s inhabitants?’
“You need to view challenges, strategies and measures from all kinds of perspectives,” he says. “Urban freight, for instance, causes a lot of risks and nuisance in cities. For that the cities impose measures like emission zones, time windows for loading and unloading and, in the case of Amsterdam, weight restrictions to prevent damage to the very old quays and bridges built for pedestrians, carts and carriages.”
So how should transport companies enable the city to be cleaner, lighter and to see fewer movements?
“People and businesses still need their supplies. So you can’t think of the measures to reduce the risks and the nuisance alone. You have to think about an alternative as well. What kind of plan for this alternative urban logistics system would that be? Who is responsible for realising this? How do you do this together with the transport companies, the businesses? How can technology, digitilisation, smart charging, all kinds of different vehicles, transport over water, logistic hubs, have a role in this?”
Van Heijningen continues: “I am very curious about developments in technology, in economics and socially, to see how to translate that into public space and how to put what’s happening into words - how to organise mobility. I very much enjoy being involved in things that matter for society. So that's what keeps me ticking - to do something good for society.”
