Amsterdam to test soothing music to calm overcrowded tourist spots

Amsterdam is launching 15 experiments to try and make the increasingly crowded city center a more pleasant place to be. One of these includes playing soothing music in overcrowded tourist spots, like the Ouderkekrsplein, NU.nl reports. The Ouderkerksplein is regularly overcrowded with visitors. The municipality will also experiment with combining the soothing music with projections and colored lights. The municipality is also launching an investigation into the flow of pedestrians at three locations in the city center. They hope to find a way to relieve crowded streets and sidewalks. Finally Amsterdam will launch "interventions" in public areas to make tourists and visitors aware of undesirable behavior, such as cycling where they're not supposed to. These experiments will start before the end of the year. Most of them will start in a single street or neighborhood and be expanded at success. Amsterdam city center is getting busier and busier due to the growing number of tourists. Earlier this week a group of inner city residents and entrepreneurs wrote to Mayor Eberhard van der Laan to complain about the situation and ask that something be done. The municipality is also making some structural changes. This includes more cycle paths and pedestrian areas where car traffic is restricted. The number of tour buses and boat tours will be reduced in the city center. And beer bikes will soon be banned in large parts of the city.