The following report is from our Swedish correspondent LN, who lived in Stockholm for 21 years:
Citizens of Stockholm must now get used to reduced accessibility and increased queues in the very central area around the government building Rosenbad.
The reason is that the government’s security department — in the wake of last year’s Muslim terrorist attack on Drottninggatan in central Stockholm and the many terrorist activities in the name of the same so-called religion that have taken place in Europe recently — considers Fredsgatan to be a security hazard.
Anders Behring Breivik’s terrorist actions in Norway in 2011 have surely also been included in the assessment. That attack was aimed, in addition to the Social Democrats Youth activities on the island of Utöya, at the government district in Oslo.
Before the Traffic Office can block a street to traffic, a formal government decision must be taken. Fredsgatan is a well-trafficked thoroughfare for cars that want to travel between the western and eastern inner parts of the city. It is unclear which non-existent alternative routes the traffic will be redirected to.
Article about Fredsgatan from Sveriges Television (in Swedish)
I would think that the Leftists War on Cars is very real in Sweden, so terrorism or not, many of those politicians responsible would like us to walk or cycle to work and back… Stockholm has become a sort of labirinth where even the best GPS navigation gets lost due to many roadblocks and closures. Add all those cocncrete jumpy jumps and obstacles to slow you down, and enjoy your day in hell you carbon producing evil motorist!
Yes, where, exactly, did this crazy rush to bike lanes out here along the Front Range of Colorado originate? Our city now has several ft employees of Bike Transport and rushing to cut main trafficking arteries. None of this was discussed in any public meeting, nor have there been any amounts of financial totals for any projects.
The latest excuse is that millennials expect a city to be bike friendly. Hmmm…
And won’t those same folks be 40 in 10 years, still madly pedalling up and down at high altitude?
This is out West after all, where I conclude that folks will just stop using downtown and move out to more space!
That is pretty much how Stockholm works: locals oftentimes don’t even have a driving licence, because having a car in Stockholm center is an expensive hobby. In the end, majority of cars in the morning rushour are company vans… Big corporations are building their headquarters outside of Stockholm center, 20-30km out in the fields, preferably close to highways.
Stockholm already is ‘bike friendly’, yet it’s becoming ‘car hostile’ more and more.
Much more fun can be found in Prague though: For the EU bicyclists would like to convert Prague as well, but there they have a few problems, like steep hills for example.
The drive to force Europeans out of their cars is everywhere in Europe…