In Bennekelstraat in the Gestel district of Eindhoven, four banners hang above the road with the speed limit displayed in large letters. They were put up by local residents fed up with the number of speeding drivers on the street.
According to residents who live on the street, people drive (much) too fast on it all the time. “Dozens of times a day, it just keeps going. It’s like a racetrack here,” says one man. He says things went wrong just a few weeks ago. “Someone was hit by a car on the corner, resulting in a head injury.”
Banners
That’s why several residents have hung banners high above the road. These clearly display the speed limit for motorists. Ultimately, however, the residents want more effective measures against speeders. “But I don’t know exactly how or what,” says one woman. “Possibly speed bumps. Then people would have to slow down.”
Speed bumps, or perhaps flower boxes narrowing the road, a man thinks. Currently, there are low speed bumps on the street. “But they’re so low, they just fly over them.”
The banners are hanging between Franz Léharplein and De Kameleon primary school. Because of the school and the playground on Franz Léharplein, many children walk along the street. “There are plenty of people here with small children. Everyone’s afraid of them. Imagine a child chasing a ball and running into the street—that would end terribly,” the woman says.
Children
A man just dropped by to pick up his children from school. He’d only recently returned to the Netherlands after a long absence. “I definitely notice that driving behaviour is very different now than when I was little. People are often easily distracted, for example, by their phones. They’re not as focused on participating in traffic anymore.”
His children, aged 8 and 10, have already been warned many times. “It’s only the second day of school, but I’ve already told them five or six times to cycle slowly and look carefully. Even when the light is green, they have to look left and right, because people don’t always obey. You might think you can go ahead because the light is green, but if someone runs a red light, you’re still the loser,” he says.
Council questions
The Eindhoven faction of 50PLUS has submitted questions to the council. They want to know from the city council whether it’s possible to address “traffic hooligans” and redesign the street to discourage speeding.
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
