News of: Tuesday, May 07 2013,

Bicycle path under Rijksmuseum: open or not on May 13?

The bike path through the Rijksmuseum passage keeps on causing unrest in political circles. The bike path is starting to hit the Dutch national news head lines.

Nobody can deny it's a unique bike path: the Netherlands' most important museum, the Rijksmuseum, has a bike path right through it. The building has a large arch in the middle, and the way through has been a bike/pedestrian path for many years.

As the bike path was closed a decade ago, to allow for the Rijksmuseum's renovation, it was promised that the bike path would be opened again after the renovation was finished.
However, in the meantime, the Rijksmuseum and the neighbourhood council changed their minds. The entrance of the museum was to be located in the passage, and this would cause so many tourists to go through, that a busy bike path would cause problems. Consquently, the Rijksmuseum and the neighbourhood council wanted to get rid of the bike path.

But the central City Council of Amsterdam, which has a decisive say in the matter, decided otherwise. The bike path was to remain open, as promised.
The opening is set for May 13.

Today the neighbourhood council made the national headlines by deciding that it would open the bike path between 6pm and 8am only, for safety reasons.
Later on the day, the responsible alderman of the Central City reacted 'surprised', saying he still expects the the bike path to open 24 hours per day.

To be continued!