CDA member Eline Vedder wants more speed now that the focus will be limited to tackling the Gieten junction and perhaps a bit of doubling afterwards. “So that we don’t have to conclude in two years’ time that we can only do half a Gieten with the same money. And you have to build it in such a way that if you ever want to double to 2×2 lanes, things don’t have to be overhauled.”
PvdA member Jos Schomaker knows what the absolute cause of the major accidents on the N34 is: the smartphone. “Car drivers end up on the verge, make a steering correction and then end up on the wrong side of the road, often resulting in a frontal collision. The N34 remains unsafe if the use of the app is not tackled while driving.”
Schomaker is looking at solutions such as the monocam, intensive police checks and jamming mobile phones when you are driving on the road. It earns him a sneer from PVV member Bert Vorenkamp. “Soon you will have to hand in your mobile phone when you enter the N34.”
The serious accidents happen on the entire N34, there are no black spots. The province is still having extensive research into the causes of the accident. Behavioral research into distraction and overtaking will certainly play an important role in this.
In this discussion, the well-known hobbyhorses of supporters and opponents rolled across the table again. Vorenkamp does not see much in a solution with a middle barrier. “This costs almost as much as doubling it, because then you also have to widen to be able to build a berm in the middle.” The Christenunie does feel in favor of separating the road into 2×1 lanes or at least an overtaking ban. For GroenLinks, a solution with blocks or ridges in the middle is enough.
But traffic safety research institute SWOV has long since concluded that these measures do not help if you accidentally end up on the wrong side of the road due to a steering correction or if you intentionally end up on the wrong side of the road due to ridges. And a total overtaking ban alone is certainly not enough.
A number of parties want to reduce the speed to 80. But Brink does not want that. “People don’t often drive too fast on the road. If you go back to 80, traffic will also drive more via other surrounding roads, not good for traffic density and safety on those roads. And 80 also encourages more overtaking. In addition, we have already invested a few hundred million in the N34 in recent years to remove all unsafe level crossings.”
Ewoud Bos of GroenLinks: “Solve the Gieten junction and use the rest of the money to make the N34 safer.” This elicited a reaction from Renate Zuiker of PvdD and Ruud Wiersema of Sterk Lokaal. Zuiker: “It’s strange that we let traffic flow at Gieten take precedence over improving road safety on the entire N34.
Speed reduction to 80, overtaking ban, the political will for all this is missing. How big is the traffic flow problem at Gieten really? Wiersema: “In the choice that is now before us, we are only going for traffic flow and not for safety. Serious accidents happen everywhere on the road, but not near Gieten, there is always only damage to the body.”
For VVD member Oosting, partial or preferably full doubling is the way to make the road safer. “And solving the Gieten junction is not enough to solve traffic flows. The N34 connects the two largest cities in the north with each other. Public transport is having problems with driving times.”