Motorists stopped for a long time in a parking garage in Tilburg on Saturday afternoon. Traffic outside the garage on Pieter Vreedeplein came to a standstill, preventing motorists from leaving. A number of elderly people had to leave the parking garage because they became unwell.
The manager of the parking garage will let you know. “These people went down with the elevator, they were bothered by the exhaust fumes,” he says.
Because traffic jammed outside the garage, the manager left the barriers closed for a while, but that caused even more chaos inside.
Thomas from Tilburg also noticed this. He had parked his car in the parking garage on Saturday afternoon and wanted to go home with his wife and children. At that moment the traffic was already at a standstill and the barriers remained closed.
“I thought it was a dangerous situation with all those exhaust fumes.”
“I thought it was a dangerous situation with all those exhaust fumes. I created a lot of trouble there and said that otherwise I would remove those barriers myself. Then they opened.”
But because so many cars wanted to drive out at the same time, it didn’t make much progress. The garage has room for 640 cars. The great traffic chaos at this location is not unique, explains an employee of the company P1. They manage the parking garage.
“There is a traffic jam here every weekend at the exit of the parking garage. That is nothing new. But normally we have traffic controllers. They were not there this weekend.”
“I’m not going to pay for the parking fee.”
Together with another motorist, Thomas eventually stopped cars on the Ringbaan, so that traffic could drive out. “But after half an hour I stopped doing that. At that moment my wife hadn’t progressed even thirty meters in the parking garage.”
Thomas then left his car and walked home with his wife and children. After twenty minutes they were home. He’s picking up his car tonight. “And then I’m not going to pay for the parking fees.”
It is unclear to the P1 employee why there were no traffic controllers. “It has been a bit quieter in recent weeks, so maybe that is a reason that the municipality of Tilburg did not think it was necessary now.”
In the end, the police were notified and traffic controllers arrived, so that the chaos was resolved after about an hour and a half.
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