Tunnel racks up 24,000 fines yet off limits to cars
In Ede, Gelderland there is a tunnel that cars and motorbikes are forbidden to drive through, but public transport buses and bikes are allowed to use. The warning signs are clear to drivers, but still, cars and motorbikes keep driving through the tunnel to the tune of 24,000 fines at 90 euro a piece since 3 December 2012. Cars and motorbikes used to be allowed to drive through the tunnel, but that was more than a year ago, which is ample time to get used to a new traffic situation one would think.
It boggles the municipality’s collective mind why cars and motorbikes keep driving through, especially since there’s a speed camera that captures them in the act. To find out what’s up with that, they’ve called upon university students to document people’s behaviour. To soften the barrage of fines being issued, the municipality has agreed to turn off the speed camera half of the day, although at random.
(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl, photo by Heiloo Online, some rights reserved)
Just curiosity, has anyone tried using different automotive GPS units to route from a destination on one side of the tunnel to the other? A year is actually a very short time for an update to digital maps, I have locations near me where there is in point of fact a road, and there has been for years, but TomTom GPS does not show it. In cases where the change is a soft one (traffic flow, speeds) instead of hard (new road, bridge), the change can take years, then take into account the number of people out there who use an automotive GPS and never update it…
Also, I wonder if they’ve looked at the timing? If the violations occur in clusters (multiple cars in very short time), it could be a case of the blind leading the blind. One car sees another going through the tunnel and assumes the signs apply to a different route?