2018 Was the Year of Europe’s War on Cars
Just a few years ago I was in a public debate on climate change and the measures that have to be adopted to get to where we are supposed to go. Numbers got ever bigger and it was not hard to see that normal people would be excluded from participating in anything interesting not long from then. I told folks there that it wont be long until people are in the streets and at some point things will get real drastic so it pays to be afraid. I was laughed at. Who is laughing now – not me for sure.
Of the many strange sights seen in Europe this year, few were more unexpected than that of legions of protesters in bright yellow vests blockading the streets and highways of France. Bringing traffic to a standstill and leaving Paris stores with their windows smashed, the fast-growing, politically unaffiliated Gilet Jaune movement even risked toppling the government of President Emmanuel Macron.
