荷兰自行车交通的历史演进及规划设计

自行车出行是世界公认的绿色、环保、健康的出行方式.而当下的中国,由于快速机动化,各级城市的自行车出行的比例急剧下降.荷兰是目前世界上发达国家中自行车出行比例最高、最安全的国家.在其历史上,自行车出行也经历了先降后升的过程.研究其自行车出行的演化历史及规划设计对于当下中国的自行车交通具有较强的实践借鉴意义.本文首先将荷兰自行车交通的使用历史划分为:开始使用自行车到高潮阶段、被小汽车出行压缩阶段和有意识规划引导阶段;进而分析了在此过程之中,中央政府和地方政府各自所扮演的角色及实施的政策.在此基础上,以具体的城市为案例,分析了荷兰为了鼓励自行车出行的所进行的各种规划设计.文章的最后部分,提出了对中国自行车使用政策及设计的几点借鉴.     

荷兰的社会混合与城市政策

在荷兰的政策讨论与实践中,一个反复出现的主题就是努力创建混合的社区.在二战后的最初几年,基本的问题不是混合群体而是混合功能:通过混合各种不同的功能,诸如居住、工作和娱乐等,使地区内的居民能够开展各种活动而不用被迫离开.20世纪60年代,功能分区的理念取代了把地区看作是所有功能和人口混合在一个有限空间里的社会单元的理念,居住、就业和交通职能被分离开.20世纪70年代和80年代,荷兰大城市中建于二战前的贫穷地区开展了大型的城市更新运动.在此期间,居住混合并不是一项明确的目标.到20世纪80年代末,一项新的住房政策开始占据主导.城市重构成为关键词:在社会租赁住房占据主导的地区,大量房屋不得不拆毁或更新,以便为那些价格更高的、通常是个人所有的住房留下空间.通过这种方式就可以抵制低收入家庭的高度集中.自2001年以来,关于社会混合的争论一直在变换论调.在此之前,这场争论和政策都已经在社会经济用语中得到体现和表述.2001年之后,与少数族裔在空间上集聚相关的问题变得尤为突出.     

Planning by Parameters

With increasing pressure on available land for development, planning parameters continue to intensify. Since the early 1990s, such constraints on urban sites have provided a significant focus for MRVDV's design and research. The practice has worked on the creation of interactive software that enables designers to interact with the limits and opportunities highlighted by the visualisation and evaluation of these parameters. Jeroen Zuidgeest and Sanne van der Burgh of MVRDV and Bas Kalmeyer of think tank The Why Factory describe how parametric models are now being applied, leading the way to a whole new generation of open-source planning tools.     

Urban Disturbance: Urban Intrusions of the office for subversive architecture (osa)

The work of the office for subversive architecture (osa) ‘crosses boundaries by thinking beyond, or further than others’. For the office's Ulrich Beckefeld and Karsten Huneck , transgression is both a conceptual and practical tool. For the work to communicate effectively, it has to stretch expectations and question norms. The urban public spaces within which they intervene are also the most tightly controlled areas of any city, which requires a subtle but pragmatic disregard for regulations.     

Renewing stigmatised estates in the Netherlands: A framework for image renewal strategies

Like in so many other European countries, the large housing estates of the post-World War II generation in the Netherlands did not fulfil the great and often Utopian expectations. Nowadays they are confronted with the effects of a negative image, a stigma. Images differ according to the persons asked for an opinion. Internal images, elicited from insiders, may overlap with external images but may also contradict them. The external image of many large estates accelerates their decay and lowers their reputation. All across Europe stigmatised large housing estates are subject to major renewal processes. The Amsterdam high-rise area of the Bijlmermeer is a good example. Once cheered by planners and politicians, later on criticised by inhabitants, avoided by outsiders and stigmatised by the media, the area is now an example of an impressive renewal programme. The question arises whether urban renewal will change a negative reputation. A stigma tends to stick, even after actual renewal activities are finished. Images of neighbourhoods can actively be promoted, just like a commercial product. Image promotion can be a supplementary strategy, which is seldom used in renewal processes. Which strategy would be the best depends on local circumstances, but strategies should be aimed at improving existing internal and external images. Image promotion may be directed to internal participants, to convince them the situation really is improving, or to outsiders, to promote the area and to counterbalance prejudices. Image promotion should not take the place of real improvements, but it is useful to work on a stigma and to give active image promotion explicit attention in any renewal process.     

Turkish and Moroccan couples and their first steps on the Dutch housing market: Co-residence or independence?

The start of the housing career of Turkish andMoroccan married couples in the Netherlandsoften differs from the common experience ofnative Dutch couples. Many Turkish and Moroccancouples live with family, friends, orco-ethnics during the first years of theirjoint housing careers. It seems obvious torelate this to the cultural values brought fromthe mother country. It is however noteworthythat, in the Netherlands, Turks co-residemarkedly more often with family or friends thanMoroccans, while there is no substantialcultural difference between these two countriesof origin in this respect. It should,therefore, be stressed that co-residence isinfluenced not only by cultural preferences butalso by other factors, such as opportunitiesfor co-residence and housing marketconstraints.     

Regional differences in nutrient limitation in floodplains of selected European rivers: implications for rehabilitation of characteristic floodplain vegetation

Extremely high river discharges in 1993 and 1995 along the Dutch rivers Rhine and Meuse have increased the public awareness of possible safety threats. As a result the ‘Space for Rivers’ program was implemented, aiming at restoring physical space for the rivers in combination with ecological rehabilitation. However, the development of species‐rich vegetation types in these floodplain areas is lagging behind restoration targets and biogeochemical constraints may play a vital role in this. Biogeochemical, hydrological and vegetation data were collected in 111 plots in both rehabilitated and original floodplains in regulated and more pristine river systems in The Netherlands and Poland. Soil nutrient and soil pore water data were summarized by factor analysis and the subsequent principal components were compared to vegetation and hydrological data by correlation analysis. The correlation analyses between vegetation parameters including nutrient stoichiometry and the biogeochemical soil variables resulted in a remarkable difference between pristine and impacted river systems. The results suggest a clear N‐limitation of plant growth in pristine floodplains, and apparent absence of limitation in regulated, impacted floodplains. In addition, results indicate that flooding events do not lead to one‐way transport of sediment and nutrients from the river into the floodplains; rather they indicate that highly dynamic hydrological conditions prevent soils from accumulating organic matter and nutrients. This study shows that nutrient limitation in regulated floodplains shifted from distinctly N‐limited plant growth to no nutrient limitation at all, probably due to decades of high fertilizer and manure application and nutrient input by the rivers during flooding. The consequence of our findings for rehabilitation activities is that it might be necessary to restore nitrogen limitation in floodplain systems in order to create opportunities for a species‐rich floodplain vegetation, through nutrient removal by hay‐making. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Housing Consumption and Financial Policy Instruments in the Netherlands

Reforming the system of financial instruments on the housing market is a recurring issue. This paper constructs a model explaining household behaviour, in particular the effects of prices and income on the tenure choice and the level of housing consumption. It analyses the effects that may be expected of fundamental changes of financial policy instruments in the Netherlands: (1) a conversion of below market rents to market rent levels; (2) a switch from the current fiscal system for owner-occupiers to a general lump sum tax reduction; and (3) a combination of these measures. The results indicate that the initial disadvantageous effects on the housing costs are large, but the behavioural response of households and the expected changes of price levels considerably reduce or even eliminate longrun effects. Since the effects may be substantial for individual households, a well-considered transition path, as is done in other countries, should be used.     

Trial and error in urban restructuring processes: learning from Dutch experiences

In the last few decades, new governance processes have been put in place throughout the Western world. In practice, unfortunately, cooperation in the networks does not always work as expected. In this paper, we identify the factors that contribute to success and failure with respect to network working in urban restructuring and the lessons that can be learnt. A Dutch case study exemplifies these processes. The perceptions of local stakeholders about satisfying or dissatisfying processes and results were used to elicit the information. Our main conclusion is that changed institutional conditions affecting the local authorities and housing associations and economic developments strongly intervene in the processes. Consequently, the functioning of a network cannot be explained by the quality of network management alone. These findings indicate that there is a gap between the suggested importance of the instruments in network theory and their relative usefulness in everyday practice. Dealing with all kinds of constraints in the management of networks will be an ongoing process of trial and error.