News of: Monday, January 30 2006,

Amsterdam, Urk and Vlieland lowest number of cars

The village of Urk, the island Vlieland and the city of Amsterdam are the only 3 places in the Netherlands with less than 300 cars per 1,000 inhabitants.

This is reported by the CBS (Central Bureau voor de Statistiek).

For the island of Vlieland this is explained by the fact that the island's policy is to keep the island as car-free as possible. Visitors are not allowed to bring their own car.
The CBS explains that Urk has an extremely high number of children (Urk is a fishery village with a strongly religious population).

For Amsterdam the low number of cars is explained by the fact that it has a good public transport system as an alternative. The number of bicycles undoubtedly has something to do with it too - about 35% of all transport movements in Amsterdam is by bike.