Bicycles outside the parking lot lines on the Hortusplein are no longer tolerated for four hours, but are removed after one hour. From now on, Haarlem will really tackle the bicycle chaos, precisely because there are more and more bicycle garages in the city center.
The bicycle garage under the Hortusplein is often empty and there is great chaos on the square. From now on, that has to change. If your bicycle is located one meter outside the box and you have not returned within an hour after enforcement officers have tagged the steel horse, you can collect the bicycle from the depot at the station for a fee of 25 euros.
Stewards
During the committee meeting, councilor Bas van Leeuwen receives a photo of the square in which stewards point out the stricter policy to cyclists. And he sees that things are going well. “Those stewards will be there for another two weeks. After that, it must be clear via the signage.”
This signage is still a concern for a number of politicians. “Because it is not that clear where the entrance to the bicycle garage under the Hortusplein is,” says councilor Timo Haver of the PvdA. But he and the rest of the city council are happy with the reduction to an hour before the bicycle is removed.
A bit sweet
However, there are calls to reduce the time for illegal parking even further to half an hour, as is already happening in other cities. “You don’t spend a whole hour in the supermarket and then you’re back before your illegally parked bicycle has been removed,” thinks CDA member Ron Dreijer. Councilor Van Leeuwen would like to consider this in the long term.
And Timo Haver of the PvdA seems to think it is a shame that the amount that must be paid to get your bicycle back from the depot does not include a penalty, but only covers the costs incurred.
Cycling party par excellence Jouw Haarlem, on the other hand, hopes that the Haarlem cyclists will be treated ‘a little kindly’. “It is better not to punish, but to seduce,” says Arwen Scholten of Jouw Haarlem. She once again advocates the longer deployment of stewards who kindly but urgently refer illegal parkers to the bicycle garage. “And why wouldn’t we move the bicycles outside the lines to that garage, instead of taking them to the depot at the station.”
Clarity
The councilor is clear on that point. And if after three days the removed bicycles have not been collected from the depot next to the station, they will actually go to the large depot at Cruquius.
And then the bicycle councilor Van Leeuwen hopes that it will slowly become clear in Haarlem: for long-term parking you look for a bicycle garage. And they will soon also be on Houtplein and under the old V&D building in the center.