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CIVITAS VANGUARD
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| Utrecht |
Utrecht website
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| Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, with a population of 300,000. Its central location makes it an attractive city to live in and a popular enterprise location. The centre of the city has its origins in Roman times and is home to several major tourist attractions.
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A central city where many roads and railways intersect
Utrecht is the capital of the province of the same name. Together with the surrounding cities, the metropolitan area has about 600,000 inhabitants. Situated in the heart of the Netherlands, Utrecht is a node where major roads and railways intersect. This central position in the country makes Utrecht an interesting place for various kinds of businesses, meaning that on weekdays, some 90,000 commuters travel to Utrecht.
Utrecht is on the move!
The city of Utrecht is expanding, especially to the west. Here Utrecht is building the largest housing area in the country. Furthermore Utrecht is working on a complete makeover of the Central Station Area, together with the ministries of Transport and Spatial Planning, and several private companies. Part of the plan is a new Central Station terminal. The number of passengers handled by Utrecht Central Station will double in the next twenty years, reaching up to 100 million travellers a year.
Air Quality Action Plan and other guiding documents
Good accessibility is crucial to the economy of the city, as well as to the people who live and work there. However, Utrecht stresses the importance of a pleasant living environment. Aside from accessibility there is a focus on air quality. The continuous traffic growth and the development of the city call for an integral approach for air quality improvement, to combat this Utrecht developed an Air Quality Action Plan. All traffic and transport related measures - within CIVITAS and beyond - take this into consideration.
Aside from the 2006 Air Quality Action Plan, Utrecht has two other relevant guiding documents, the 2005 Urban Traffic and Transport Plan and the Execution Plan for the Accessibility Programme of Utrecht West (2006). This plan was developed because in the period between 2007 and 2012, the city of Utrecht will see a great deal of construction work on and around the Utrecht road network. These construction activities will put a huge strain on current accessibility, especially to the west of Utrecht. Furthermore, the construction activities in Leidsche Rijn and the area around the central station - as explained above - will put extra strain on accessibility..
Utrecht in MIMOSA
In CIVITAS - MIMOSA, Utrecht focuses on the part of the city that lies between these large-scale developments. The impacts of these developments will be biggest in this area, also because this area is an important traffic-artery to the (inner) city of Utrecht from main national motorways (the A2/A12 or E25/E35). The city of Utrecht is making a big effort to ensure that the city remains accessible during its "(re)development", and aims to make use of these activities to develop new, structural and more sustainable approaches on transport.
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