Isn't it very tempting to imagine the Netherlands as one urban system? Its population is comparable to global metropolises. It has a railway system that is comparable to that of a metro network in terms of its coverage and connectivity. But does it operate as one?
While the planning concept of the Randstad has been around for close to a century, only recently does it seem to operate as one system, accelerated after the introduction of the High speed line. Beyond the Randstad, there are clusters of midsized cities with weak connections between them and to the Randstad. Eindhoven and Groningen form 'distant' centres of gravity.
High speed connections between the Randstad and the mid-sized constellations could potentially turn the idea of one Dutch urban network a reality.
I did this quick research to understand the evolution of the Dutch Urban Network. This gives an idea of how the system of cities work at the national scale. However, instead of looking at the absolute number of jobs, the interdependency of cities at the scale of the daily urban system can be made more visible if we look at the percentage of the working population of each municipality working in a differenet municipality. While it could be a smaller absolute number at the national scale, a higher percentage reflects a stronger interdependency at the local scale. Maybe something for the next set of maps.
If you have any suggestion/feedback, I’d love to hear from you 🙂
by archibabu
3 comments
Dit is super cool! Leuk gedaan.
En als iemand die in Eindhoven woont en lang in Amsterdam werkte, met klussen over het hele land, ja het functioneert meestal als één grote stad.
I am wondering, is the high speed connection between Amsterdam and Rotterdam such a game changer? Or is not being able to afford a house also a big but invisible factor?
Hey, I’m a mobility student myself. If I’m honest this is true for most part but the HSL line really isn’t that much of a change when it was built. There still is a normal train line between Amsterdam and Rotterdam without the HSL. Furthermore, the Randstad is really one big city with smaller cities between the bigger ones. Although it sounds like one big city, the travel time can take up some time though. It doesn’t help that municipalities have their own vision at stuff and not always work together to make the best plans although that is changing since some years. In the end because the Netherlands is quite small everything feels very connected and in that way we live in one big city, yet every city has its own soul and drive. In a lot of places, bicycle highways are being built between villages and cities so that people will use the bike more and the car less. That includes new skyscrapers being built and planned in for example Rotterdam where in one skyscraper 400 apartments will be built with only place for 40 cars. All of the other people can use a brand new bicycle parking underneath the new building so they can cycle to the central station and from there take the train everywhere else. Everything is getting more integrated, finally! I can keep taking so if you want to know more, feel free to send an DM!