Why on earth you need to buy a car on a country with one of the best rail infrastructures in the world and the best bike infrastructure in the world, is beyond me.
So, correction: they are banning cars from city centres, not just ICEs. As very well they should.
Its all fun and games when things work out, but they don't all the time. And not to mention its really really hard to return from shopping at Ikea by train.
Biking, sure, fun, but not so autumn/winter/spring, especially in the areas close to the North Sea. The humidity and the wind makes the cold not very tolerable.
I could go one for a while.
The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, excellent public transport, excellent bike infrastructure. The majority of people don't need a car!! That's just a fact. And the people who do need it can still use it, precisely because the people who don't need have viable alternatives to driving.
Yet they have 500 cars per 1000 people [1] and 74% of households own a car [2].
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/452085/netherlands-numbe...
Obviously some people will need cars (being a carpenter would be tough with just a bakfiets) but it is very feasible for many people to not have a car.
But you need roads. It's a choice whether to make it e.g. 1 part car lane, 1 part bike lane, 1 part bus/tram lane, 1 part pedestrians, or flatten the whole thing to make space for cars.
Not to mention parking, pollution, the deaths and maimings, and the million other externalities.
Japan does not need to ban cars because it is incredibly expensive to own a car in Tokyo. So either you ban it or you make it so expensive that only the rich can afford a car. Either way works for me.
Speed limits are low across the board, and there’s tons of traffic calming such that a trip by car is often slower than by train or bike.
Yes, Tokyo has the best public transport in the world, but people would still choose cars if they were faster and cheaper.
thats the point, cars would not be faster and cheaper to move around in Tokyo.
Tokyo intentionally makes cars slow.
My man/woman, you should come to my place