For three (3) months in November 1973, the Dutch government restricted private motor vehicles on Sundays to control oil utilization during the Opec energy emergency.
At the time, as the goverment’s prohibition of driving on Sundays came into power, motorways were deserted, and queues at transport stops were long. In fact, empty taxicabs were stopped in lines at the ranks.
There were, obviously, authorised exceptions to the ban apart from public transport; fire engines, ambulances, doctors, dentists, veterinary surgeons, foreign tourists, and tradesmen who had to get their food to markets, restaurants and hotels.
Today, that prohibition is back once more, as the Netherlands government has once again introduced Car-Free Sundays. The Government’s drive has broadly been welcomed by the people of the country.
Interesting, people who had hired a vehicle with local number plates are approached to walk – or utilize public vehicle. In Amsterdam and some parts of The Hague, a few people had been fined for breaking the rules.
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Currently in Amsterdam, you could see moderately aged couples sharing a solitary bike taken from the rear of the carport. While others are riding on horses to their destinations.
The Police clearly stop any vehicle that ridicules the rules enacted or don’t cling to the standards. Sadly, a few foreigners is by all accounts giving the police a few issues, as they quickly speed off when stopped by the police for not adhering to it.
Under the crisis 1939 Distribution Law, which the government has reenacted, people who break the prohibition on driving can face fines of up to £17,500 or a most extreme jail sentence of six years.
Appropriately, the achievement of the goverment’s drive can be put down somewhat to what one Dutchman alluded to as “the element of Calvinism” that actually has a spot some place in the spirits of its comrades.
