Have a conversation about why America should be less car-dominated, and sooner or later, you’re bound to hear a skeptic say something like this:

“That all sounds great. But American transportation culture will never change. This isn’t the Netherlands!”

Advocates Melissa and Chris Bruntlett had heard it, too — until 2019, when they made the move from Vancouver, B.C.,to the city of Delft in southern Holland. What the couple and their two teenage children learned in the months since is subject of their new book, Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars In our Lives, which they hope will inspire advocates to question the narrative that car-light life is a luxury reserved only for the Dutch.