@brenttoderian.bsky.social This image keeps going around. Somebody needs to dive deeper into the story. (I am not volunteering, any more than the little I did below.)
Note: I am very much against car-centric city planning. But I am also against blindly repeating claims that might be misleading.
This street is apparently Zeilstraat. It is still used by cars. It seems to have four lanes nowadays, not five. And lots more cycle traffic. I am not claiming it has traffic jams like in the picture very often, I have no idea. But I don't know how common such traffic jams were in the 1970s, either. Anyway, this street still is used by cars.
Was the centre of #Amsterdam in general like this in the 1970s? Hardly. Most streets were as narrow as they are now.
A more useful post would be one showing some other street in the 1970s *and* now, with the current state being more pleasant, with reduced parking, trees planted, etc. And including some statistics about how car traffic has decreased and cycling increased in the centre of Amsterdam, as I assume it has.
@tml Taken from about here, perhaps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ifgFLyMWLTHPL1J99
Still looks like quite a car-heavy road, and a lot of the issues people raise with bicycle infrastructure are present here too: delivery vans blocking cycle lanes, bikes forced to merge with traffic, etc.
As you say, one needs to look at the wider context.
Thomas Knorra
Brent Toderian
Mania Emma
Marga Xeyat Ⓐ
Janeishly
Irenes (many)
Tor Lillqvist
David Weir