Transport in the smart city [Built Environment Transport]

AMSTERDAM BEGINS and ends with tram number one - from and to the Central Station. For me, at least, it does. Chatty, smiley, multilingual and multiracial, this tram is a microcosm of the Dutch capital itself. The tram's progress along the narrow streets is so slow that it gives the impression of sliding backwards in space and time - towards the melting pot of medieval Amsterdam, and its passengers get miraculously transformed into diamond-cutters from Antwerp, Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, Huguenots from France and dissenters from England - all of whom found refuge in the most tolerant and accommodating city in the world, the city that I call the people's capital of Europe.