Quickly buy a present or do the last shopping for the holidays. Christmas stress creates a buzz at the Boulevard Zuid shopping center in Eindhoven. Traffic controllers were even deployed on Tuesday and Wednesday to direct traffic.
Waseem is one of those traffic controllers and he and two colleagues stood on the street all day. “We were here yesterday and today from eight in the morning to seven at night to help with the Christmas crowds.”
He ensures that motorists immediately go in the right direction so that no congestion occurs. “And we help supermarket trucks that come to load and unload.”
According to Waseem, it was still manageable on Tuesday, but Wednesday was ‘extremely busy’. “Luckily it’s not chaos because we’re there, but we haven’t been able to breathe. There’s no time for a break. We’ve been busy.”
The traffic controllers were called in by the Boulevard Zuid retailers’ association. “Last year, visitors to the shopping center took half an hour to get out of the parking lot during the busy Christmas period,” says Rob Vos, chairman of the retailers’ association. “They had nowhere to go and that caused a major traffic jam.”
Because the nearby Leenderweg is closed for maintenance, shopkeepers feared an even bigger crowd this year. “We think it is important that people can park their car when they go shopping. We therefore thought it would be nice if there was help available for a few days.”
They asked the municipality if it was possible to use traffic controllers, but they were not given permission to do so. And so the association took matters into its own hands.
They arranged parking attendants for Tuesday and Wednesday. “They made sure the parking lot was safe and accessible and they helped with getting in and out.” This action turned out to be a good move. “We have not had any delays this year, we are happy with that.”