The Amsterdam area authorities are to invest €120m in improving facilities for cyclists, of which €90m will be spent on 40,000 new bike parking places.

The use of bikes in the Dutch capital has gone up by more than 40% over the past 20 years, the city council says. This means narrow bike lanes are having to accommodate an increasing volume of bike traffic and overcrowded bike racks are ‘beginning to affect accessibility’.

The city has now decided to speed up the introduction of measures to help cyclists. These include looking into ‘green waves’ for cyclists at traffic lights to improve the flow of cycle traffic, providing cyclists with extra space at crossings and the appointment of an official responsible for coordinating the removal of disused bikes.

These plans come on top of plans to increase the number of bike parking places by 40,000 and add a further 17 km of new bike lanes.

The council is also planning a ‘large-scale drive’ to remove disused bikes from cycle racks and is looking into the introduction of maximum permitted times at cycle parking spaces.

More on the plans