Roely Rijpkema
The theme of the final booklet of our team is ‘How To Get There’. The goal of this topic is to design a sustainable mobility plan for the island. Hereby the focus is on the amount of cars and the full parking lots. For doing so, the current mobility system will be analysed as a socio-technical system and some actors involved in it will be presented. Together with that, some existing sustainable projects for the island will be explained. After, the goal we have for the mobility on Texel will be presented with a problem statement. Finally, in the second part we will look at islands with sustainable mobility projects and get ideas of the technological systems that could be applied in our island.
Texel is an island and a municipality of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of approximately 13.700 people, it is the largest and most habited island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. It has a surface of 463,16 km2, of which only a third is land, and it is 24,7 km long and 9,5 km wide at its highest point. Tourism in Texel represents around the 70% of the economy, leading to big fluctuations of visitors in high season period. Popular forms of tourism in the island are cycling, walking, swimming and horse riding. The tourism has big impact on Texel and on the mobility system. Because Texel is an Island, the mobility system on the island can be analysed with clear borders.
Socio-technical system
In this chapter the mobility in Texel as a socio-technical system will be analysed. Science, technology an society is shaping each other, they cannot operate in an isolation. For example the electric car is an example of a socio-technical system. It is a specific technology and needs for example infrastructure, rules, organization and human behaviour. The technical solutions are developing quickly, but it also needs the society to make it work (Edler, 2014). Technology is everywhere in the current society, social-technical systems are all around us.
Current mobility system
The mobility in Texel can be understood as a system that combines people and institutions together with transport technology and infrastructure. Most people go to the Island with the ferry from Den Helder (mainland) to het Horntje (Texel). To travel around Texel can be done by foot, bike, car or public transport. The island has around 900.000 tourists from in and outside the Netherlands every year. This makes Texel in the summer more crowded than in the winter.
A good mobility is important for the viability and attractiveness of Texel as a tourist destination. The mobility situation on the island is special because of the many tourists who visit the island. They provide peak periods in the season and on weekends. Therefore, preparing an effective mobility system for these periods is an important factor to take into consideration. Texel wants to be a hospitable island where guests move without experiencing a sense of bustle and stress. The people of Texel want to give the guests an experience of peace and space. For the Texelaars (people from Texel) it is a matter of great importance not to encounter no obstacles in their mobility. Especially in the high season Texelaars have to minimize any inconvenient experience by the increase in population and traffic (Gemeente Texel, 2015).
On Texel there is one provincial road (N501) present: between the ferry and De Koog. This road is the main artery of the Texel road network. The access roads to the different villages are connected to this road and ensure a good connection. The number of cars on the island is measured at different places. At the measurement point Pontweg South (the gateway to Texel) the number of passing cars is tracked for a long time. The following chart shows the results of these measurements.
Image 2. Chart of number of vehicles per day at different months from 2001 until 2013 (Gemeente Texel, 2015)
It is clear that the number of vehicles increases significantly during the summer season, the most crowded period of the year. Besides this, it can be concluded that the traffic growth on the island, in particular, has occurred around within the summer season. The data shows a slight traffic growth, through the years. Consequently, it is expected that the parking pressure by this increase also will increase proportionally.
Texel is seen as an island made for cycling, while the car is not excluded. The bicycle path network will be expanded with new bike lanes. The bike paths will be wider and are better maintained. In the centres of the villages and near the beach are good and sufficient parking places for bicycles. Texel is also taking in account the disabled people. As custom bikes are rented to people with disabilities and there are (electrical) beach wheelchairs available at various beach pavilions.
In the mobility vision of Texel 2015-2025 are described different possible developments in the coming years. Below they are briefly set out:
1. The use of cars in the Netherlands continues to increase until the year 2020 due to the increase in the number of households and social change. Older people remain healthy longer, be more prosperous and strive for independence and comfort. The so-called 'rush hour family' combines many tasks and therefore increasingly chooses the car.
2. The composition of the population changes, the number of older people (with private transport, wanderlust and active) increases.
3. The public transport in rural areas is under pressure.
4. The Netherlands remains a country of cyclists but the bicycle traffic is not expected to grow.
5. The number of transported cars and persons to Texel will increase considerably.
6. Due to the increase of the car use, the pressure on parking lots will increase parking.
Tourism on Texel
As mentioned before, the tourist are quite important for Texel. The VVV of Texel (tourist information) is doing a survey every year on the visitors to Texel. The main part of the visitors (30%) are married / cohabiting with children living at home. More than a third, 29%, has no children. Approximately 22% are between 45-54 years old, followed by the 55-64 age group (around 18%). They have an average or above median income, between € 20,000 and € 60,000. The number of young visitors decreases. Most visitors are from North Holland, followed by South Holland and Gelderland. Key reasons to visit is nature / landscape, beach, rest and walking / cycling. Accessibility is becoming increasingly important as a reason to come to Texel. Based on the data of the VVV of Texel it can be expected that the number of visitors who come to Texel by car will increase (Gemeente Texel, 2015).