Workshop TR 4.1, Wednesday 21 June, 14.00 - 15.30

Between national and local level: the role of provinces and regions

Evert Herringa, Province of Zeeland, the Netherlands   Provincial bicycle policies This presentation will explain the role of the provinces in the Dutch Transport policies. Subsequently an overview will be given of specific measures on the provincial level with regards to cycling.

Bert de Vries & Alex Colthof, Regional Authority of Amsterdam (ROA), the Netherlands Between the National and the Local Level: The Role of Provinces and Regions ROA (Regional Organ Amsterdam) is a regional government for the municipalities in the Amsterdam region. This co-operation is based on the so-called 'Kaderwet'. The municipalities have delegated some of their duties and responsibilities to the ROA. This concerns for instance regional planning and regional traffic. The regional public transport is a matter of ROA concern, so is the regional cycling. The ROA and the several municipalities have made regional transport policy: 'Regionaal Verkeer en Vervoerplan' (RVVP). This RVVP is the basis for all activities concerning traffic and transportation in the Amsterdam region. An important part of the RVVP concerns the regional cycling policy. The central Dutch government finances several transport activities in the Dutch regions. For this purpose they have created the 'GDU'. The GDU is a fund, to be used for infrastructural activities. The ROA is responsible for this GDU-fond for the Amsterdam region. The ROA municipalities can ask the ROA to finance their projects. These projects have to be part of the RVVP. Projects to improve the infrastructure for cycling can also be paid by GDU-finances. These projects concerns in general the reconstruction of roads (cycle paths), but it is also possible to finance parking facilities for cycles or projects to stimulate cycling in general. The decision to finance those projects is made by the ROA and the municipalities. They have made agreements about the conditions those projects have to fulfil. Based on these conditions, each year a program is made and executed. In this presentation the next subjects will be discussed: * the position of the ROA between local and national government, * the cycling policy in the ROA-region , * the way the ROA gets to their cycling program, * the cycling projects in the ROA-region, * the results of the ROA cycling policy.