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Walking on the highway

You might remember it, the car-free Sundays in the 1970s. The Dutch took to the highways en masse with bicycles, horses, roller skates or even on foot, in an attempt to cope with the oil crisis. The Netherlands was the target of a boycott of Arab countries, because the Netherlands was on the side of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. From November 4, 1973 through January 6, 1974, highways were closed to cars every Sunday to conserve oil.

Measures

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is now proposing to reinstate car-free Sunday in major cities. They want to limit the demand for Russian oil and thus dampen the price increases of fuel. In total, the IEA devised 10 measures to somewhat manage the rising oil prices due to the war in Ukraine. Other proposed measures are, for example, a reduction in the maximum speed, working from home more often and cheaper public transport.

hassle

According to the IEA, such a car-free Sunday could help against price increases. But such a day when you are not allowed to take the car could be quite inconvenient for many Dutch people. Because if you do have to go somewhere, you should take a bike or public transport, but that’s not an option for everyone either. There used to be no electric cars, now there are. Do you also have to leave it in the street on a car-free Sunday?

Playing outside

On the other hand, such a car-free day can also wake us up. Because do we really have to take the car for every small ride? Maybe after the car-free Sunday we will not only have some fuel left in our tank, but we will also get into the habit of taking the bike more often. Furthermore, the car-free Sunday can also be quite a bit of fun. WOMAN colleague M experienced the car-free Sundays as a child and loved it. “Usually we had to play on the sidewalk or in the yard, but now we could roller skate and skateboard on the street. It was of course much more fun on a tarmac road than on the sidewalk.”

Comments

Van Elkemiek is allowed to have a car-free day again, she likes the peace and quiet.

This Twitter user is looking forward to the car-free Sunday. She remembers that she could roller skate on the road, and was surprised when someone drove by with the car.

Brenda thinks that other measures will be more effective than the car-free Sunday.

Paul is in favor of the introduction of a car-free day in Groningen. He loves the photos that were taken during the car-free days.

Join the conversation

Do you think the car-free Sunday is a good idea to solve the price increases? Or would you rather take the car on Sundays to go out? Join the conversation on our Facebook-page!

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