“The roundabouts of the Burgemeester Kasteleinweg in Aalsmeer are too complicated.” For the second time that is the conclusion of a research agency that has been hired to investigate the roundabouts. Aalsmeerders have finished the danger of local politics and demands action.
Since the construction of the roundabouts in 2021, the municipality has registered twenty accidents. In practice, that number is higher, because accidents that the police are not called is not taken along. It often went wrong between cars and cyclists.
In 2022, research agency DTV drew a similar conclusion as in the new study. The municipality then took a number of measures, but there are still regular accidents on the roundabouts. That is why she decided to call in DTV again for an investigation.
Confusion and unpredictability
The conclusions are not tender: “The unclear priority situation, in particular in the combination of bicycle crossings and bus lanes, leads to confusion and unpredictability. The roundabouts districts to a considerable extent from a ‘regular’ traffic situation” can be read. This mainly causes conflicts between motorized traffic and slow traffic (cyclists and pedestrians).
Monique de Haas – who lives next to the roundabout on Dorpsstraat – has been calling for years that things have to be done differently. As a neighbor of the roundabout, she sometimes feels like a social worker because she sees one accident after the other.
She is happy that DTV now comes up with recommendations that she is behind, such as the removal of the bus lane that runs through the middle at four roundabouts. “I have called from the start that the bus should take the traffic. It is a very strange situation. People from outside do not understand at all. Even for local residents it remains difficult.”
Nevertheless, Monique Pas relieved breath if the municipality really puts the recommendations into practice. “Now it has to happen. Just make it normal roundabouts. Then it is clear to everyone. Pulling and stopping that madness.”
Jan Koster agrees with this. The Aalsmeerder was seriously injured in March During a round of cycling. He sometimes drives the roundabout five times a day, but is still surprised by a bus. “I first had to go past two cars and looked at those motorists in the eyes. Suddenly a bus thundered.”
Jan breaks his pelvis, ankle, fibula and foot. He is also covered with blood shedding. There must be a trauma helicopter. “I was in shock on the street and couldn’t sit anymore,” he says.
He still has a lot of problems with the consequences of the accident, both mentally and physically. His rehabilitation lasts for months and he cannot work. He hopes that politics will finally make the roundabout clearer. “There is a talk around it. They have been knowing what’s going on for a long time. Experts are going to look at it and then again. When they are wise, they do something about it.”
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Chairman of the Hornmeer district consultation and a lot of user of the Gerard Zelen roundabouts finds it especially painful that in his eyes there is no listening to the inhabitants. He understands that it is complicated to implement measures. “It is complex because four parties are involved: the municipality, province, transport region and bus companies.”
He does not like the running of the bus with the other traffic. “The delay then becomes too much,” he fears. He mainly believes in the recommendation to make the roundabouts more like. “And remove all superfluous plates. Make it simple again.”
Speed up
Several municipal councilors inform NH that a motion is being prepared. To keep the speed in despite the summer recess, D66 already asked the college written questions yesterday. “Where is the expectation in terms of duration, what bottlenecks can we encounter and how are we going to finance this?”, D66 councilor Jeffrie van der Tol summarizes.
“We knew it seemed unsafe and this report confirms what we experience. Now we have to put it on the agenda,” says councilor Daniëlle Prent Bouten van Absolutely Aalsmeer. She is afraid that the college will linger for too long in the dicks, so that brushing will not happen. “The report is there. You will not get along with the fact that you are now going to talk endlessly with the province and carrier.”