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Occupy Amsterdam? How Mass Protests of Cars Fostered Dutch Cycling Policy


December 1, 2011

Read More: http://sustainablecitiescollective.c...ir-cycle-paths

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The video below offers vital historical perspective on the way the Netherlands ended up turning away from the autocentric development that arose with postwar prosperity, and chose to go down the cycle path.

- It lists several key factors, including public outrage over the amount of space given to automobiles; huge protests over traffic deaths, especially those of children, which were referred to by protesters as “child murder”; and governmental response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, which prompted efforts to reduce oil dependence without diminishing quality of life.

- The Netherlands is often perceived as an exceptional nation in terms of its transportation policies and infrastructure. And yet there is nothing inherently exceptional about the country’s situation. As the narrator says at the end of the film, “The Netherlands’ problems were and are not unique. Their solutions shouldn’t be that either.”

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• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBdf9jYj7o" target="_blank">Video Link