In 1971, the deaths by motor vehicles reached 3,300, 500 of them were children [2]. In 1972, many protest related to such children murders occurred in different locations in Netherlands. But the most memorable was ‘Stop de Kindermoord’ [4] “they were an answer to how a lot of people felt about (child) traffic deaths at that time in the Netherlands” [7]. 

There were several demonstrations from the group: occupying accidents blackspots, organizing special days were streets were closed to allow children to play safely, they cycled with an organ in front of the house of the prime minister Joop den Uyl, to sing songs asking for safer streets [4]. A characteristic is that the protests involved both the parents and children [2]. One of the most remarkable protest, and is still use today, took place outside Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in the mid-1970s, were the participants laid down with their bicycles pretending to be dead [9]

In 1973, the oil crisis also gave momentum to the movement, and the government started the “Sunday free car” which reminded citizens how it was before the introduction of the car. The crisis increased the mass protest to improve road conditions, putting pressure on government to take measurements [2].

Two years after the creation of this group, the Dutch Cyclists’ Union was created, to demand more space for bicycles. They made mass noisy demonstrations, painted illegal lanes in streets, among others[4]. Both groups continue in the fight. “The battle goes on.. the propensity of urban planners to give priority to cars is still persistent”[4].

The 1960s had also witnessed in Amsterdam the movements of Provos (and later the Kabouters) - the Provos painted bycicles white that were left freely in the streets for public use. Their ideology was already anarchist-environmentalism. Opposition to the Dutch monarchy, the war in Vietnam and air pollution from automobiles became the major issues for the movement.