Before and after; comparing 2012 with 1957

Motorized traffic has increased enormously in the last 55 years all over the world and also in the Netherlands. But not in every street, at least not in the Netherlands. I have already given you examples of this before. In the case of Potterstraat in Utrecht, the street was only closed to private motorized traffic. But there are also places that were designated as areas for people only. Two of my older video’s show the car free inner-cities of Utrecht and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. I used pictures for the ‘before’ situation. Recently I came across moving images of the center of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 1957. I combined these with 2012 images of the exact same spot.

First let’s look at some stills from the video.

Banning cars from shopping streets cannot be bad: the very same shops of the 1957 image are still there 55 years later in 2012. Both chains: Van Haren sells shoes and HEMA is the best department store in the Netherlands.

The arrow shows you that this really is the same spot. Much more people friendly in the 2012 situation.

A traffic light was needed in the 1957 situation, but not anymore in 2012. No motorized traffic here anymore and cyclists and pedestrians do not need traffic lights to negotiate the right of way safely.

It is clear that banning motorized traffic to the outside of city centers and designating specific areas of the city for traffic flow and others as areas for people, which was perfected under the ‘sustainable safety’ policies, was very good for the livability of Dutch cities.