The city of Amsterdam is building a new subway, straight under the oldest parts of the city, form North to South.
Smart!
When the subway is finished, visitors can travel by modern subway and leave their polluting cars outside.
Smart!
The subway tube is located about 30 meters underground, funded on a firm layer of sand. For the rest the soil of our city consist of peat. That?s why. And because the tubes are located deep, so will the platforms.
Smart solution!
But?
What to do with the space between the ground and the platforms?
The city decided to build an underground parking in the Rokin station in the middle of the old town.
Smart?
We all know parking facilities attract cars. And cars cause accidents and increase pollution.
Not smart!
I thought we were, by building the subway, trying to solve these kinds of problems?
How do the cars get there in the future? Through the narrow streets of the old center and the districts of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th when city design was not taking cars into account! And these are the parts of the city now packed with pedestrians and cyclists.
You understand that the parking is not the smart solution Amsterdam is waiting for.
I can imagine the people who decided to build it. They were convinced to solve a problem by making a parking in the empty space.
In the end it will turn out to be a solution causing new problems: accidents and pollution the city was fighting against.
Not smart!