The Power of Knips in a Street
A Dutch word meaning ‘cuts’
The city of Amsterdam has been one of the most aggressive cities trying to purge car commuters and have them switch over to public transport, bicycles, and other safer modes. It will ban fossil fuel-based cars to achieve its zero-emission goal by 2030. Earlier this month, they came up with an action plan for recent efforts to improve the quality of life of pedestrians & cyclists, while bringing down car commuters. This plan includes incorporating more Knips.
A Knip is a street design concept, that shuts-off a short segment of the street for cars. It doesn’t disrupt urban logistical activities (deliveries and cab service) but effectively takes away the preferred alternative to cross to opposite ends of town for car commuters. It is also a cheaper alternative to congestion surcharge and doesn’t require significant interventions or CCTV setups across the city.
The city has been implementing these firm decisions for a while, but the city doesn’t seem to have any plans to accommodate for bike parking issues after drivers finally switch over. It already had this issue for the past few years, and current action plans will exacerbate it. Along with knips, it should also identify the concentration of areas with this issue from their urban usage data analytics and optimally establish more bike parking infrastructure.
