Ever since ditching car culture and joining the urbanist cause (on the internet at least but that has to change), I’ve noticed that some countries always top the list when it comes to good urbanism. The first and most oblivious one tends to be The Netherlands but Germany and Japan also come pretty close. But that’s strange considering that both countries have huge car industries. Germany is (arguably) the birthplace of the car (Benz Patent-Motorwagen) and is home to Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Japan is home to Toyota, Honda, Nissan and among others. How is it that these countries have been able to keep the auto lobby at bay and continue investing in their infrastructure?
Well they basically started again in the late 40s…
Prior to that, Hitler saw the rise of the car and made Volkswagen and the Autobahn.
When you purposely build for pedestrianisation as well as motor vehicles, you get good results. Japan and Germany and majority of other nations didn’t sacrifice one for the other but built them up holistically together.
Neither Hitler the shitstain himself, nor the NSDAP invented the Autobahn. That was propaganda and is well known as a myth, today.
Sadly german planners post-war were influenced by the stupidity that was called Athens Charta. Many cities were built as “autogerechte Städte” with the car in mind first. Yes, pedestrians and cyclists were considered, but as an afterthought. Bike lanes and sidewalks were crammed together, they built tunnels under the roads to cross them without danger (you can imagine how safe those are considered, especially at night). By US american standard, that seems kind of okayish, but from from a present german perspective, the car-centric city was a big mistake, that is dismantled in many places, but sadly not everywhere.
Ah ok. My apologies.
No need to, but thanks for being nice. :)