Car Free Sundays, a 40 year anniversary

From the 4th November 1973 there were a number of Car Free Sundays in the Netherlands. The Dutch had supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. This was reason for some of the oil producing countries to reduce the production and consequently deliveries to the Netherlands and several other countries. Due to this oil crisis, petrol was to be rationed from 7th January 1974 on. To curb oil-consumption before that measure took effect, the Dutch government announced the complete ban of private motorised traffic on a number of Sundays, from the 4th November 1973 until the 6th January 1974. It meant the 3 million cars the Netherlands had at the time (there are 8 million now!) could not be used from Sunday mornings 3 am until midnight (so people could still return from their Saturday night outings). The papers showed empty roads after the first Car Free Sunday and all kinds of transportation people had used instead. There were pictures showing long lines for buses, all kinds of bicycles and even horse-drawn carriages.

One year earlier, in 1972, the “Stop de Kindermoord” (Stop the Child murder) organisation had started their work: protesting to get safer streets for children. From a very interesting interview recently on BBC Radio with Maartje van Putten, one of the mums involved from the beginning, it becomes clear that this organisation used the Car Free Sundays to make their point even better: streets need to be for people.

“We said those days are our days! We take the street back into our hands. So we rode from the centre of the city to Amsterdam North and there is this tunnel. People were already angry in those days that when the tunnel was built it was only built for cars and not for bikes: there was no bike path through the tunnel. So we said: “Okay, now we go through the tunnel!” I have to say it was a little bit dangerous, because there was still some traffic around like ambulances and police cars and the fire brigade and some people who had permission, for example doctors going to hospitals and so on. So we went with a group of parents on our bikes, kids on them, singing through the tunnel. Then at the end of the tunnel we were confronted with police cars that stopped us. The kids were taken in the police cars and our bikes, and we as well. The police took us and said: “You were a bit irresponsible doing this as young parents!” and of course they were right! But it was at the same time fun and nothing happened.”

Even though this was not the first time the Netherlands had experienced Car Free Sundays (in fact there had been Car Free Sundays in 1939, 1946 and 1956 as well) the 1973 Car Free Sundays changed something in the Dutch mindset. Not only did they show once again what cities looked like without cars, they also made it possible that other forms of transportation, less oil dependent and in particular cycling, were seen as a viable option for every day transportation. This line of thinking would ultimately change the Dutch transportation system into what we have today.

Last Sunday night a new bridge opened to motorised traffic in Nijmegen. But earlier on that Sunday, it was only open to people walking and cycling. Making it look almost like the roads were on the Car Free Sundays of 1973. Some cycle experts took the opportunity to remind people that it had been 40 years since those important Car Free Sundays that were one element in the mindset change that the Netherlands experienced in the 1970s.

Nobody had to look out for emergency vehicles and doctors rushing to patients this time and the video shows people of all ages and backgrounds walking and cycling and admiring the new bridge. To the right in the video is a very nice and wide two-way cycle path (visible towards the end of the video). I will show you that cycle path in a later video on a normal day. But first: the spirit of the 1973 Car Free Sundays on a 2013 Nijmegen bridge.

A “Car Free Sunday” in Nijmegen, 40 years after the real Car Free Sundays in 1973. Video without sound (because I recorded only wind!)