Ban cars and this is the result. Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands …

Ban cars and this is the result. Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands … from europe

27 comments

  1. Where there is a will, there is a way. European cities need to make their urban spaces more cycling and pedestrian friendly. Sadly there are still countries who are more interested in making people buy cars because lack of other transport and then tax them to poverty for having a car. Makes no sense.

  3. I live in Los Angeles. I pay $270 a month on my car, about $120 for gas, $100 for insurance. So I waste $500 a month on my car. Haven’t even mentioned yearly checkup on my car. Complete waste of money. And I know know people that spend substantially more money on their car every month than me. I could save so much money if LA wasn’t so car centric.

  5. They did not ban cars entirely, just give priority for bike lanes over car lanes. Also there is plenty of public transport for people who cannot bike.

    If you want people to switch to biking you don’t just take their cars away. You first have to make sure there are sufficient and safe bike lanes.

    And yes biking in the rain sucks but Dutch people don’t care.

  8. The framing of this video is a little deceptive. There is a road just out of frame on the left. Only one lane in each direction and only open to buses and taxis, but it is there.

    Not saying the bike infrastructure isn’t great (there’s actually *another* segregated bike lane on the other side of that road) but the comparison with the older footage is a little strange because of this (you can clearly see the latter is shot in a much wider view).

    (Source: this is my city.)

  9. Imagine every person you see here driving alone in their own car. The carrying capacity of bikelanes is insane.

  10. “Vrede” means anger in Danish. As a Dane it is always a bit disconcerting seeing all these churches named “church of anger” or in this case “castle of anger”. (“Fred” is peace in Danish, so I can guess the real meaning).

  11. This is not only banning of cars. Just like Nijmegen and Leiden, Utrecht is also a “student” city. The number of bikes in comparison to people is insane. If they had just gone a bit further, you would still see cars, a lot of cars. Nevertheless, I do like the idea of bikes in the city center, it is cleaner and “safer” if you are a pedestrian.

  13. Back in high school, I had a daily walk of 2.5km, which took about 30 mins. Meanwhile, people living near me who attended the same school used public transit, and it took them 20-25 mins. They also queued for the elevator instead of climbing one damn floor on foot.

    Seeing so many people bike is lovely, but unfortunately, I think creating a new infrastructure won’t work overnight everywhere. Culture and mentality will need to improve, and this take a long time.

    In my country (Romania) at least, walking/biking/using public transit is seen as an indicator of poverty. “What? You can’t afford a car?” “Oh, you are turning 18, what car are you getting? You don’t want a car, why??”. Many people in Romania drive cars more expensive than the place they live in.

    And the funny thing is that we are one of the poorest countries in the EU, while the Netherlands is one of the richest. Moreover, even inside the Romanian society, the poorer the person, the more eager they are to show off their wealth. Oh, the irony.

  14. We’re planning on visiting the Netherlands next year and want to bike from Amsterdam to Delft, then Rotterdam and finally to Utrecht.

  19. If you dont like to live anymore and wanna end it all, walk into a dutch bike lane, or stand on the wrong side of a London escolator. Other than that, Europe is pretty safe.

  25. My only question is, does arriving sweaty (and possibly smelly) at work happen? Or do you just have to bike slowly enough so you don’t break too much of a sweat

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