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?
The opposite was the case in Germany, sadly. Partly because of the destruction in WW2, the city planners in the late 50s went a bit nuts with their concept of the „autogerechte Stadt“, the car-centric city. Many cities still suffer from that period of planning madness, but it gets better. At least there, where conservative shits like the CDU aren’t ruling.