Dutch authorities plan to increase speed restrictions on highways in an effort to reduce nitrogen pollution | EPA/Robin Van Lonkhuijsen Nitrogen pollution forces Dutch drivers to go slow A court ruling will force a more sedate pace on highway users.

It's 1974 again in the Netherlands — don't think mini-skirts, porn-star moustaches and bell-bottoms, but rather the low speed limits that defined the oil shock 1970s.

But this time instead of oil sheikhs, the cause is a court ruling forcing the government to slash nitrogen emissions. One way of doing that is to make cars drive more slowly so that they emit less pollution.

Authorities will start unveiling the new traffic signs Friday, slashing the daytime highway speed limit from 130 kilometers per hour to a much more sedate 100 kph. The new limit goes officially into effect on Monday — putting the country on the joint lowest speed limit in the EU along with Cyprus.

Drivers have been told to obey the signs and for now ignore any contrary advice from their driving apps, which may not have been updated to the new limits. Speed freaks will have to content themselves with night driving; the old faster limits will still apply from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The government was forced to act following a May ruling by the Dutch State Council, the country's highest court, which found that the government's plans to curb nitrogen emissions were inadequate. The ruling called a halt to permits for activities that emit nitrogen, hitting not only the transport sector, but also farming and infrastructure projects — including plans to get Lelystad airport up and running.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the ruling a "rotten measure," but said that it had to be obeyed in order to allow for the construction of an estimated 75,000 new homes each year.

Rutte's center-right VVD party has long been seen as a champion of the car and brought in the white-knuckle 130 kph limit in 2013, boosting it from the previous 120 kph. “I am incredibly upset, it is terrible, but otherwise people would have been without a job at Christmas. Then I could not have looked at myself in the mirror any more,” he said after the court decision.

Speed limits can be very political.

Germany has been mulling setting a limit on its iconic autobahns, but the issue is a vote-killer for car-addicted Germans.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 cut the speed limit on secondary roads from 90 kph to 80 kph — an energy and safety initiative that ended up fueling the rage of the Yellow Jackets protest movement. The lower limit has since been scrapped.

In the Netherlands, the response to the new measure has been pretty relaxed, with no protests; the VVD hasn't been hit hard in opinion polls over the issue.

The cost of switching the approximately 4,000 road signs to the lower speed limit is estimated at around €19 million.

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