This tour will take you to several examples of urban street design throughout the city of Amsterdam, including bicycle lanes and streets, shared space and tramways. A visit of Amsterdam Central Station, a multi modal transport hub, will be part of this tour.

At the beginning of the 20th century, bikes, horses, carriages (and later trams), were the means of transport in the city center of Amsterdam. Due to the increase of car use, the public space in the historic center was dominated by moving and parked cars. The congestion that arose, led to a restrictive parking policy. Instead, public transport and cycling became increasingly popular and claimed their own place. Because of the large increase of bicycle traffic, this has led to new considerations on the layout of the public space. The strict separation of cars and slow traffic, the current standard that consumed a lot of public space, could no longer exist. This led to new street layouts, where all traffic types are mixed: street designs where everyone must take each other into account. This creates mixed street types where the car is a guest, for example in the new cycling streets and car free shared spaces for bicycles and pedestrians.
In front of Amsterdam Central Station, the many types of traffic are separated as much as possible. Behind the Central Station the ferry docks restrict the available space and traffic flows were so large that a shared space design has been chosen. Coming years, the front square will be renewed, increasing the space for water and improving safety for all modes of transport.