It’s hard to believe, but it’s true: there are no more bikes to be found on the sidewalk in front of the Harmony Building.
UG stewards refer everyone who wants to park their bike there to the back of the building. ‘That has always been the policy’, says Maud Kruizing team leader of the inner city stewards. ‘But our people have been told to pay more attention to the problem.
And it is working too. Where pedestrians before had to scamper over bikes to get to the entrance, they can now enter the square hassle-free. People actually stand still and talk, without blocking others.
Emergency services
‘I also noticed that it is clean and tidy around Aletta’, Kruizinga says. ‘That looks good, doesn’t it? Of course it is also important for emergency services, like the fire department. They need to be able to get to the building if necessary.’ The number of traffic jams , caused by trucks unloading at the cafés or shops, will be reduced too.
‘We do our best to keep it this way’, Kruizinga says. ‘There is so much space behind the Harmony Building. People can put their bikes there in the bicycle stands or the underground bike shed.’