If it is up to the province of Groningen, there will be a partial ban on trucks in Onderdendam. Village council and Traffic Committee Onderdendam think it’s not enough. “We want a bigger traffic study.”
Onderdendam, five o’clock in the afternoon. It is busy. A long line of cars waits in front of the Zijlvester Bridge. What’s waiting for? A truck. He tries to take the corner, but it only just fits. The only solution for the driver: over the curb. Irma Schuurman (53) looks at it. “5,000 cars drive past here every day.”
Schuurman is a member of Dorpsberaad Onderdendam. And she’s done with the traffic jam. It is a coming and going of vans, trucks and cars. Every now and then a tractor drives by.
Next to Schuurman is fellow villager Afiena Benthem (57) of the Onderdendam Traffic Committee. Benthem: “We don’t call it the Julianaplein of the Hogeland for nothing.”
That can be seen. There are concrete bolsters in gardens, a traffic controller has grazed and a lamppost is crooked. Benthem points to a house: “That lady is waiting behind the window for the garbage truck. She is afraid that the wheelie bin will be moved by a truck driver before it has even been emptied.”
Prohibit
The province thinks that the solution lies in a ban on trucks crossing the bridge. They will no longer be allowed to cross there between seven in the morning and six in the evening.
But that does not give the province the problem by the scruff of the neck, says Benthem. “What you will see is that they still drive over the bridge in the evening.” There may not be a traffic jam, but the noise has shifted to the evening and the houses are still shaking. Moreover, trucks can still drive on other narrow roads.
In addition, there is a lot of commuter traffic from the surrounding villages. “Only 13 percent of motorists must be in Onderdendam,” says Schuurman. She bases herself on a traffic study commissioned by the village.
Repetition of moves
The Onderdendamsters have been arguing for a ring road for years, but they have to address the problem with every new municipal or provincial administration. They are now well aware of it. Because what has changed after all this time?
In the meantime it only gets busier. Villages expand and new roads are built, changing traffic conditions throughout the area.
Big research
That is why the traffic situation in the region around Onderdendam must be thoroughly investigated, argue Benthem and Schuurman. “We want a total solution for the area. That is why we sent the province a manifesto: ‘Look wider, look bigger’.” They do not know whether the province will embrace the manifesto. “We sometimes ask ourselves, are we going to experience that change?”