Picnics on the motorway: the first car-free Sundays – in pictures

For three months from November 1973, the Dutch government banned cars on Sundays to curb oil consumption during the Opec energy crisis. City residents enjoyed picnics on empty motorways and got around on foot, by bike ... and on horseback

Main image: Picnicking on the motorway in November 1973. Photograph: Anefo/Nationaal Archief