From 10 to 11 October 2022, representatives of Berlin’s administration, districts and businesses travelled to Amsterdam. The visit focused on local mobility strategies and talks with Dutch companies on cycling culture, active mobility, shared mobility and the smart city.

The idea behind the “Urban Mobility – From B to A” format is to intensify the network between companies and organisations in Amsterdam and Berlin. With a clear aim: to develop and implement concrete project ideas together and to expand the exchange of knowledge and business between the two cities.

Over the course of two days in October, a total of 16 actors from Berlin’s administration and districts as well as representatives of Berlin businesses travelled to Amsterdam and Utrecht to find out more about the development of existing and future Dutch mobility strategies. They explored Amsterdam by bike and networked with innovative Dutch companies.

The participants from Berlin were especially impressed by the fact that Amsterdam views mobility more holistically and comprehensively than many places in Germany. The fact that the city of Amsterdam encourages its citizens to choose carbon-free means of transport by promoting bicycle traffic via the national OV Fiets programme, installing neighbourhood sharing hubs (e.g. Cargoroo stations) and EV charging stations inspired the Berlin delegation. Amsterdam has also set strict targets in order to be carbon-neutral in future.

“Bicycles first”

With a touch of envy, the Berlin participants observed how deeply cycling is rooted in Dutch culture. At Amsterdam Central Station, for example – one of the city’s bicycle traffic hubs and shared spaces – cyclists and pedestrians accept and tolerate one another and give each other space accordingly. On a cycling tour of Amsterdam, the guests from Berlin were able to experience the quality of the local cycling infrastructure first hand: separate bicycle paths in a separate colour; bicycle traffic lights; well-thought-out and designed crossings; and – compared to conditions in Berlin – huge, modern bicycle parking racks. But it also became clear that Amsterdam’s “bicycles first” principle has room for improvement – for example when it comes to inclusive planning and accessibility: currently, the city does not have a programme for pedestrians, for example. The quality of Amsterdam’s infrastructure, on the other hand, was very convincing. The fact that the city is rather hesitant when it comes to cooperating with new mobility services within the sharing economy is remarkable: so far, the city does not offer ride pooling or autonomous shuttles; nor are rental bikes available throughout the city. Here, Amsterdam could benefit from Berlin’s experiences, only employing those concepts that have been tested successfully!

Visit to innovative local companies

The fact that the exchange between Berlin and Amsterdam is important and appropriate further became apparent when visiting local Dutch companies: Cargoroo’s yellow, electric cargo bikes can increasingly be seen within the Berlin ring; design office Springtime is working with TIER Mobility to brighten up Berlin’s streets; and Fronteer’s Coding the Curbs programme could represent a good solution for Berlin’s goods transportation sector and thus help reduce conflicts arising from double-parked vehicles. Another highlight of the trip was the visit to the world’s largest parking [LE1] garage for bicycles in Utrecht, where the delegation was given an impressive demonstration of the city’s cycling culture –in the utilisation of the 12,500 bicycle parking racks as well as on the paths and areas in front of the garage.

What are the next steps?

The findings the delegation took away from their visit to Amsterdam and Utrecht will now be assessed in a follow-up meeting – as will the experiences the delegation from Amsterdam gathered during their trip to Berlin in February 2022. This may give rise to further activities and, above all, joint projects: for example in the field of communicating cycling culture, in the cooperation of different levels and departments of administration or in the implementation of logistics hubs and the planning of mobility stations. 

“Create the infrastructure and people will use it. In Amsterdam, this has been done through the New Biking: a combination of behaviour-related communication campaigns, citizen involvement paired with a data-driven needs assessment, pilot projects and the promotion of cycling in districts where few people use a bike,” said Rolf Mienkus, delegation participant and managing director at INSEL-PROJEKT.Berlin, summing up his impressions. The Dutch delegation, he continued, had visited Berlin’s real-world labs and fields for experimentation and expressed a desire for similar temporary test spaces, for example in Amsterdam, Utrecht, etc. “What I took away was a statement I heard repeatedly, namely that it took more than half a century to turn Amsterdam into a ‘paradise for cyclists’, so ‘Berlin multi-modal, or intermodal’ won’t happen over night either. We need to be in it for the long haul and tolerate frustration.”

The “Urban Mobility – from B to A” delegations’ visit was organised by Berlin Partner for Business and Technology in cooperation with Amsterdam Trade & Innovate, the Amsterdam council and APPM.