Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives

“Curbing Traffic” is about how the Netherlands in general and one city in particular, Delft, created alternatives to driving that were so effective that two-thirds of daily trips are made by transit, on bikes or on foot. The benefits of a “car-light” city are many, the book says, from making life more affordable for families to keeping streets safe for children.

Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett are a Canadian couple who moved in 2019 to Delft, where they became active in mobility issues and raised two children.

The big ideas for Urban Atlanta:

1. The key to creating alternatives to cars is the right physical infrastructure that connects the right places. This means safe routes for pedestrians and cyclists, but it also means routes that people can take to work, shopping and schools.
2. We will need compelling reasons for change. In the Netherlands, one reason for the investment in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure was the fear that cars endangered children walking or cycling to school. For Urban Atlanta to create mobility options, we will need our own compelling reasons for change.
3. The Netherlands shows us that cars, transit, bicycles and pedestrians can co-exist and even benefit one another. For instance, traffic on Dutch highways moves much easier than in the U.S. because there are fewer cars on the roads. In Atlanta, motorists would benefit from fewer cars, as well.
4. As the book makes clear, alternatives to driving have another benefit: much greater mobility—and personal freedom—for children, the elderly and people with disabilities. These are people who cannot drive or would prefer not to. But they could take transit, walk or cycle, if there were safe and convenient ways of doing so.
5. The Dutch experience shows us that transit and cycling are collaborators, not competitors. Bikes can solve one of transit’s greatest problems: the first-mile/last-mile problem. Holland’s integration of bikes and transit shows us how.