Amsterdam wants creative solutions to overcrowding; Commits €365K

Amsterdam is calling on entrepreneurs, board committees, cultural institutions, research institutes and education to come up with creative solutions for overcrowding in the city. The municipality made 365 thousand euros available to fund these experiments, Het Parool reports. The Dutch capital is ever expanding and that is increasingly leading to overcrowding problems, especially in the city center. The Amsterdam municipality therefore decided to broaden the field in which they look for solutions. Anyone can submit an idea for an experiment to lessen the crowds, or at least the nuisance caused by them. The experiments have to meet certain requirements, including that their results must be measurable and that the project must be implementable elsewhere in the city. The municipality committed 365 thousand euros to carry out these experiments. The municipality acknowledges that this amount is not nearly enough, but they want to give projects "a little push". Ideas for proposals can be submitted here until September 6th. The final decision for experiments to start this year will be made in September or October. This is the second round of experiments. 18 experiments are currently running, including one with alternative routs to try and alleviate pressure on the Amsterdam canals and an app with which residents can measure the noise levels of events themselves.