The City of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, had previously divided its area into districts, where basically all the municipal authorities were transferred. As a result, the districts were in charge of public roads, including the underpass through the Rijksmuseum, the national museum. The underpass, however, has historically served as a part of main bicycle routes, whose location was still under the jurisdiction of the city. Until the museum reopened in 2013 after a major renovation, there was a long controversy over whether this underpass should be closed to bicycles. The aim of this study is to reveal what kind of policy choice the district and the city made concerning this controversy, and to examine reasons behind such a policy choice. It turns out that the city played a decisive role in reopening the bicycle route, and that the district opted for closing it partly for reasons inherent in the district system.
