Photo: Salim Virji (Flickr)
Amsterdam expands smart bike parking tags
23 August 2021
by Christopher Carey
The City of Amsterdam and railway operator NS have developed a scannable barcode tag for bicycles to allow for more convenient parking at rail stations and municipal bike garages.
The service, which already operates at the city’s Amstel station, will be rolled out to three more stations this week as part of efforts to make bike parking a more seamless experience across the Dutch capital.
Cyclists with a bike parking subscription can have the tag fitted free of charge at the parking facility, with data collected used to improve services.
“[We] only collect data when people check-in and check-out in the bicycle parking garage to improve the system – no other data will be collected,” Wouter Keuning, spokesperson for the City of Amsterdam told Cities Today.
The gates at parking facilities will automatically recognise the tags so users can pass straight through the barrier.
Successful trials
The bike tags and the check-in and check-out zones have already been tested by rail passengers in the neighbouring cities of Breda and Harderwijk, according to Keuning, with trials revealing shorter queues at peak times.
Cyclists in the city can currently check-in and check-out with their debit card or ‘OV chip card’ (a contactless smart card system used for public transport in the Netherlands), with the first 24 hours free, after which they pay €1.25 (US$1.47) per 24 hours.
Automatic check-in is set to expand at an increasing number of bicycle parking garages in the coming years, according to the city.
Flower power
In October 2020, the municipality started placing wooden plant and flower baskets on Amsterdam’s busiest canal bridges to dissuade bike parking after concerns that pedestrians were being forced into the street by the accumulation of bikes being tied to bridge railings.
The baskets are maintained by visitors to drop-in centres for the city’s homeless community.
Extra designated parking zones for bicycles have since been installed across the city – replacing car parking spots in many cases.
Image: Salim Virji (Flickr)
