Once upon a time the USA was a shiny beacon in the world of progress and prosperity and other countries started imitating 'the land of the free'. Those ancient American concepts proved to be just hot air and from a beacon the USA turned into overcooked bacon.
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Thé symbol for progress and prosperity was THE CAR. Miles and miles of asphalt were poured to accomodate the object that symbolized FREEDOM! And people could easily [got in debt] get loans to get one. And for a decade or so things were great. Until the banks wanted their money back and THE PEOPLE couldn't pay up.
In the meantime The Netherlands had started to follow the USA's example and the country started to physically resemble their 'big brother'.
But the Dutch law makers started to listen to the population and decided that people who get killed in traffic don't pay a lot in taxes. And people with lot of debts don't spend a lot of money to keep the economy going. So things - okay, roads - changed and with that the Dutch landscape. As seen in these images of Amsterdam 'then' and 'now'.
Now you know: "We can't be like The Netherlands and our infrastructure needs to stay car centric!" is nonsense. Because where there's a will, there's a way. Or road.
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