How Highways Almost Destroyed Amsterdam - Plan Jokinen

Not Just Bikes
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2022–2024
YouTube
408K views · 7 years ago · explainer · evergreen

Not Just Bikes tells a short history of Plan Jokinen, the 1960s proposal to cut highways through central Amsterdam. It explains how public protest in the 1970s stopped it and set the city on its cycling-friendly path.

HN uses it as the go-to example that the Netherlands was once as car-dependent as anywhere else and only narrowly avoided car-centric planning.

“Not Just Bikes made an interesting video on the thankfully-avoided plan to build a US-style highway system in Amsterdam”
Urban design & public space
#amsterdam#urbanplanning#highways#cycling#cityhistory

4 comments from Hacker News

T
@Tijdreiziger2022 · in “When cities treated cars as dangerous intruders”
Not Just Bikes made an interesting video on the thankfully-avoided plan to build a US-style highway system in Amsterdam: ▶ this video
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s
@stevesimmons2022 · in “The Future of E-Bikes”
I do all those things in Amsterdam. I can get everywhere in Amsterdam much quicker by bike than driving or public transport. Cycling in the rain and snow [2] is no problem, you just need the right gear. What non-Amsterdammers don't realise is the city never used to be a cyclist's paradise. In the 1960s, Amsterdam's car-obsessed urban planners had grand visions to drive motorways through the inner city, razing the historical buildings, and constructing Manhattan-like skyscraper clusters. Here's a 3 minute video "Highways Almost Destroyed Amsterdam" [1] about those plans, the fightback in the 1970s, and the resulting bike culture that Amsterdam has today. Enjoy! [1] ▶ this video [2] link
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B
@BadHumans2024 · in “California Approves Waymo Expansion to Los Angeles and SF Peninsula [pdf]”
Amsterdam and Paris used to be both be very car dependent. Here is a video about Amsterdam before they shunned cars. ▶ this video
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s
@scrollaway2022 · in “When cities treated cars as dangerous intruders”
Indeed it wasn’t always this way. And this mindset plagued more countries. The Netherlands narrowly avoided it: ▶ this video
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