As of next year in April, the municipality will be increasing parking fees all over Amsterdam, but especially in the inner city.
Amsterdam is getting busier and busier and keeping the city liveable and accessible is a great challenge. By increasing parking fees, with the highest prices in the inner city, the municipality hopes to discourage visitors from bringing their cars to the city centre, and thus create a low-traffic area in this part of the city.
Parking in the city centre currently costs 5 euros per hour. In April next year, city centre parking fees will be 50 percent more expensive, namely 7,50 euros per hour. Ultimately, the municipality wants to raise parking fees to improve liveability in the city. The returns made by doing so will therefore be invested into measures which benefit the liveability and accessibility of the city.
According to traffic alderman Sharon Dijksma, not everyone will be happy with the increase; however, it is necessary to keep the city liveable and accessible. She also reasons that the increase will also afford more space for cyclists, pedestrians and greenery.
The new parking prices should result in around 33 million euros of extra income. This money will be invested in improving public transport and mobility. Amsterdam will also be investing 400 million euros in new trams, metros, zero-emission buses and the OV-infrastructure in the coming years, with the hope of encouraging visitors to travel into the city using public transport.
The municipality wants to accommodate those who visit residents by car, and will therefore be increasing the visitors’ regulation to 40 hours per month. This means that those visiting residents will receive a 50 percent discount on parking fees for these 40 hours.
The new regulation applies to areas of the city where visitors would usually receive 10 or 30 hours of parking per month. In Q3 of next year, the municipality will propose more ways to reduce car use in the Dutch city.