 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
Transportation In Amsterdam Transportation system in Amsterdam is a huge and widespread. Transportation within the city itself is characterized by bicycles and public transportation. Large expressways only exist around the city. Traveling by car through the city center is inhibited, with the government sponsoring initiatives to reduce car usage. Car transportation is discouraged by the local government, with initiatives such as Autodelen and Meerijden.nu being sponsored, and steep parking fees and a great number of streets are closed off for cars in the city center. The A10 Ringroad surrounding the city connects Amsterdam with the Dutch national network of freeways. Interchanges allow cars to enter the city by moving to one of the eighteen city roads, numbered s101 through s118. These city roads are regional roads without grade separation, and sometimes without a central reservation. The s100 is called the centrumring, a smaller ringroad circumnavigating the city center. Amsterdam is identified as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world and is a centre of bicycle culture. Most main streets have bike paths with Bike racks present everywhere. There are about 700,000 bicycles in the city. Each year, about 80,000 of them are stolen and 25,000 end up in the canals. In the city centre, driving a car is discouraged and a great number of streets are closed off for cars or one-way. Public transport in Amsterdam, functioned by Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf, Connexxion, Arriva, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen, consists of numerous bus, metro and tram lines. Several ferries for pedestrians and cyclists across the IJ also exist. During the building of the Amsterdam Metro, plans to bulldoze the entire former Jewish neighbourhood near the Nieuwmarkt led to strong objections. The metro was still built but plans to build a highway through the neighbourhood in the centre of Amsterdam were eliminated. A new underground line, the North/South Line (Noord/Zuidlijn), is under construction. The predictable completion date is in 2012. Amsterdam is a main core of the highway system of the Netherlands. Dutch expressways numbered one through eight were originally planned to instigate from Amsterdam in 1932. Impediments, like the outbreak of the Second World War and other hurdles led to the current situation, where roads A1, A2, and A4 originate from Amsterdam according to the original plan. These connect the capital with Germany (via Apeldoorn), Utrecht and Leiden correspondingly. Cancelled road A3 would connect Amsterdam with Rotterdam via Gouda, but conservation of the Groene Hart was deemed more important in 1970. Road A8, leading north to Zaandam and Ringroad A10 were opened between 1968 and 1974. Besides the A1, A2, A4 and A8, several freeways, such as the A7 and A6, mainly carry traffic bound for Amsterdam, but finish at one of the preceding. Eight stations of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), the most of any city in the Netherlands also exist in Amsterdam. Three are intercity stops: Sloterdijk, Amstel and Amsterdam Centraal. Eurolines has coaches from Amsterdam to places all over Europe. Amsterdam Centraal is a transnational train station, providing regular services to destinations in Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Among these trains are international trains of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen and the Thalys, CityNightLine, and InterCityExpress. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is the biggest airport in the Netherlands, the fourth largest in Europe and the tenth largest in the world. It holds about 42 million passengers a year and is a base to KLM, since 2004 part of Air France-KLM. |
 |
 |
 |
|
|