Race Against Pollution: Who Will Be First to Have No Private Cars, Amsterdam or Oslo?

A groundbreaking green change is expected to happen in the year that’s just around the corner, as two capital cities work towards being the very first to go car-free: Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Norway’s Oslo.

Martin Mignot of investment capital firm Index Ventures says that electric bikes and scooters are paving the way for an eco-friendly “revolution”, and predicts that either bike-friendly Amsterdam or Oslo will be the first major European city to ban private vehicles, with France having great potential to follow in the next five years.

“People are just realizing that congestion and pollution have reached a tipping point and that you can’t just add more roads – space is very finite and a private car is just not a very efficient way of moving people around,” says Mignot. “There is a genuine technological revolution … Those (electric) vehicles are the missing link in the transport grid.”