Anger blooms over green street plan
Dutch council offers residents chance to free streets from cars
It seems a straightforward offer: swap your resident’s parking permit for a bit of greenery in the freed-up space, a lawn, a sun deck or somewhere for the children to play. However, if any further proof was needed of the west’s destructive love affair with the car, the reaction to a pilot project in one of the Netherlands’ biggest cities has been telling.
Streets have been divided, angry complaints made and Walter Dresscher, the organiser of the council-backed scheme in The Hague, given a verbal going- over during a fiery public meeting. However, Dresscher’s determination remains undimmed: “We can’t go on like this. This has been a great success already because people are thinking.”
The arguments are over a proposal by The Hague to allow residents in six streets in Segbroek, a suburb in the west of the city, to voluntarily swap their parking permit for six months and replace it with something green and pleasant on their street.
Their vehicles would be stored in a car park for free, and those participating could choose how to use the vacant space. The long-term aim is to encourage people to use car-sharing schemes or switch to public transport and bicycles. Globally, most cars are said to be parked 95% of the time.
Dresscher, an architect by training, said opposition from many residents in the selected areas illustrated how deeply people were attached to their cars, even in the Netherlands, which is often a pioneer in terms of green transportation.
“The idea was to get people together but it didn’t. Why? If there is one that is very angry and starts mobilising the whole street then you have a problem.
“But if you don’t want to participate, don’t participate. But physically a car is getting out of the street. Nobody is losing anything.”
Dresscher insisted the initial hostility has abated but, as yet, only six householders have signed up to the scheme that starts next month. Two residents have, however, pre-empted that date by putting flower-filled tow-carts in front of their homes, to the irritation of some. Drivers have been known to shout abuse as they drive by.
Dresscher, who has €60,000 ($70,000) of funding from the council and charities, is still confident that more people will come round to his thinking, and is glad that a debate has been started.
Rembrant Frerichs, 40, and, Wolfert Brederode, 44, both pianists, and neighbours on Newtonstreet, said they believed it was an important first step in changing the nature of their road, but were yet to decide how to use the space in front of their homes. Brederode said:“People have this belief that they have a right to have a car, a right to have a parking space. A car is like a second home to people but it isn’t rational.”
Far from tranquil … drivers have hurled abuse at early adopters