Roller skates and bicycles on the highway and hardly any cars on the streets, it has been 50 years since a series of car-free Sundays began. The measure was taken by the Den Uyl cabinet because of the impending oil crisis and ultimately there were ten of those car-free Sundays in 1973. Shouldn’t car-free Sundays return, for example for a better environment? And then once a month or maybe every Sunday?
You may have seen the black and white images in the news, this week marks the 50th anniversary of the start of a series of car-free Sundays. At the time, this produced special images of roller skating children on otherwise completely empty highways. Some took their horses out of the stable to ride on the highways and others organized a picnic on the road. Many people saw the car-free Sunday as an extra holiday.
Little protest
The measure was taken by the Den Uyl cabinet because of the impending oil crisis. The oil-producing countries boycotted the Netherlands because it had sided with Israel in the six-day war.
November 4, 1973 was the first car-free Sunday during the oil crisis. Almost everyone adheres to the rules on Sundays and the number of protests against the measure is not too bad. Even after the 1970s there are car-free Sundays. These are held to make people aware of the consequences of car use for the environment.
Should car-free Sundays return to our country? And then every week, every month or preferably not at all?