Amsterdam's head of transport has announced plans to ban petrol and diesel cars in the city by 2030.
The clean air action plan aims to make the Dutch capital a "world leader in emission-free transport".
Transport chief Sharon Dijksma said residents "live a year less on average due to dirty air" and that the plan should "prolong the health of the average Amsterdammer by three months."
But the plan has already incited strong reactions in the Netherlands with one motoring organisation branding it "bizarre" and wondering how normal people would afford electric cars.
The plan, which would be applied 20 years before the Paris Agreement aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions, would require up to 23,000 electric charging points by 2025. The city currently has 3,000.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @01:09PM (3 children)
Not all driveways are created equal. In the West, it's common for the mailbox to be next to the rural highway, a mile away from your actual house. Are you going to walk for the better part of an hour to get your mail?
Amsterdam, I would say, already has a post-car transportation culture so it's not so hard for them to ban them completely. It's like a vegetarian going full vegan--he's already most of the way there.
Still, even in densely populated cities with multi-modal transportation there remain valid use-cases for car ownership. Just because you might not have one does not mean others don't, and that their use cases are not valid. For example, in NYC there's no reason to have a car if all you ever do is commute into Manhattan and occasionally go somewhere else. But if your main axis of movement is from Far Rockaway, Queens, to the Bronx, then you better have a car or it will take you five hours each way to ride public transportation.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aim on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:27PM (2 children)
Now that sounds like a very reasonable distance to use a bicycle, not a car. That in turn could do wonders for fitness (ok, walking would, too, but I'll accept that one doesn't want to spend that much time).
Oh. Do they also put recycling containers for paper up right there for all the advertisements, or are "no ads please" stickers respected?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @07:25PM (1 child)
Winter, snow, ice. Summer, 100F, rattlesnakes. That's if you're young and spry. Heaven help you if you're elderly.
Bicycles are great, and are more useful than most Americans suppose. They are not the right solution in every case.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 08 2019, @06:32AM
Plus if you drive you can get back on your couch quicker to watch Jerry Springer re-runs. Why waste all that time outside?