The beautiful city of Amsterdam is known for its love of cycling, and almost everyone commutes almost all the time by bike. As fun and eco-friendly as cycling can be, parking your bicycles is a whole other issue, especially in a city as dynamic as Amsterdam. The city is known for being crowded with parked bikes, and the parking space never seems to be enough. In such an environment, the city of Amsterdam recently unveiled two massive bike parking spaces which are – underground!
Designer: Amsterdam City
Called ‘Stationsplein’ and ‘IJboulevard’, the two new stations are located next to Central Station, and can hold up to 11,000 bikes. This allows a lot of the space on the streets to be freed up. Stationsplein has been built under the Open Havenfront. It is a water body between the Prins Hendrikkade and the Stationseiland. The Stationsplein is currently the largest biking shed in Amsterdam, and it was opened to the public on January 28th, 2023. The garage can accommodate up to 7000 bikes and is well-connected to the Metro Hall, and the Amsterdam Central Station. On the other hand, the IJboulevard parking facility is located behind the Central Station, and it will open in February 2023.
These underwater bike sheds are truly a boon to the city of Amsterdam, as they are already providing plenty of ample parking space for the citizens. It allows pedestrians to park their bikes around the city’s main train station. It’s only been a couple of days since the first bike shed opened, but already the bike racks on the street look less cluttered, and the steady chunk of parked bicycles seems to have reduced. The area around the train station seems to be tidier and much more organized.
Larger pedestrian and bicycle paths have been built along with the two underground parking facilities. Streetcar stops and tracks have been replaced, and new underground cables and pipes have been added as well. “The opening of the new parking facilities marks the beginning of a new era, in which Amsterdam Central Station will be somewhat like it was around 1900. Accessible and pleasant, without cars and bicycles parked everywhere and nowhere. We are in good shape with the opening of the 2 new bicycle parking facilities, but we expect that there will be a greater need for bicycle parking spaces around the station. That is why we have already started preparations for even more parking spaces for bicycles,” said the Amsterdam representatives on the City’s official website.