There is space for four shared cars in a car park on the edge of Wippolder’s Delft district. Only one was taken during rush hour, the other three are still parked unused.
This shows that councils are focusing on shared mobility in their efforts to reduce parking pressures, but there is still much to gain in this area.
A tour by NOS showed that a significant number of the Netherlands’ 25 largest municipalities are struggling with parking pressure. As a solution to the problem, Delft, Zwolle, Haarlem, Arnhem, Groningen and Utrecht, among others, planned shared transport.
There are already several so-called hubs in the Netherlands, i.e. places where various forms of shared mobility are offered. As in Zwolle, this may involve parking the car and then continuing to travel by public transport. Or it ranges from a small carpool location like in Delft to a large transfer point at Borger in Drenthe.
Shared mobility is a comprehensive concept; This includes cars as well as shared cargo bikes and scooters. Niels van Oort, professor of public transport at TU Delft, says such a wide range is also necessary for the success of a centre.
According to Van Oort, if there are more shared forms of transportation, this will also encourage people’s behavior to use them more. Adding additional facilities such as a pack station will also be beneficial in reducing travel time.
“It needs to be more specific”
According to the shared mobility expert, the use of shared vehicles in particular is increasing. Van Oort: “Shared mobility is not for everyone, it is part of the overall mix of our mobility. “It works better in some places and times than others, and that depends a lot on context.”
Many more centers are planned by municipalities, including on the outskirts of residential areas. Some real estate developers even take this into account when working on new construction, according to Van Oort.
In new buildings, residents sometimes do not have much space for private vehicles. For example, municipalities such as Tilburg, Breda, Nijmegen and Dordrecht want “parking needs to be solved on-site” in new construction projects.
The situation is the same in Nijmegen. According to the council, if parking is not available on your own property, “you are not entitled to subscribe to a street parking permit or public garage”.
Van Oort also sees that there are still challenges, especially in convincing people to give up owning their own cars. According to Van Oort, shared mobility can sometimes be “quite boring”.
For example, there are many different providers, each with their own application and sometimes a credit card must be linked. According to the Associate Professor, the shared transportation option needs to become more prominent and useful. “There needs to be full-fledged alternatives,” he says.
However, shared transportation can definitely be an alternative to the car. “But then people need to be able to trust availability,” Van Oort says. So, if it is said that there is more than one shared bicycle or car in a place, that car or bicycle must actually be there.
Other solutions
In addition to so-called hubs, municipalities are also implementing other plans to reduce parking pressure. One is to get people to pay (more) for parking.
Leeuwarden relies on a kind of reward strategy: City parking is cheaper than street parking. Like Amsterdam, Breda prefers to send its residents to parking lots with permission.
Paid parking spaces in most of the 25 largest municipalities, such as Rotterdam and Eindhoven, were expanded last year.
For example, other municipalities have stopped the number of parking permits for the city center or are deciding to issue parking permits but set a maximum number.
In most cities, such as Enschede and Maastricht, residents and businesses receive a maximum of one permit, depending on the crowding in the area where they wish to park.
Source: NOS
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
