It is not yet snowing when Belgian Danny Roelants is sitting in the car in a parking lot along the highway, looking at his phone. It is in the morning, a quarter past six. Roelants (50) is much too early for his appointment in Oosterhout, where, as project leader, he is carrying out the preparatory work for the renovation of seven hundred meters of sewer in the city center. “A very nice assignment,” he says. But one that tolerates no delay. “The condition was that the job was completed before carnival.” And so Roelants had to ignore the warnings not to go on the road. The ride from Temse to Oosterhout went well, he says. “I personally think all the warnings are slightly exaggerated. But as a result, many people stay at home and it is now pleasant to drive for me.”
I personally think all warnings are slightly exaggerated. But as a result, many people stay at home and it is now pleasant for me to drive
On this cold snowy day it is not busy at the two gas stations on either side of the A27 highway near Oosterhout in Brabant. “We have almost half the normal number of customers,” says Nick Schaareman (26), location manager of Galgeveld gas station. “That will save many hundreds of people.” What do they sell the most? “Windshield washer fluid, it’s all gone now.”
Many motorists we address here reason as follows: Rijkswaterstaat may rightly advise against taking to the road due to dangerous snowfall and slippery conditions, but they themselves have an urgent reason to drive anyway. Such as handyman Koen Hermes (21) from Breda, who will be painting in Oosterhout. “As a self-employed person you have to earn money.”
Winter tires
Reinier Atzema (50) from nearby Dorst left an hour earlier this morning to meet a new colleague from Germany in Rotterdam. “I’ll make sure I arrive before the snow showers, and we’ll see how I get back tonight.” The refueling traveler is certainly aware of the risks. His wife, he says, left Amsterdam last night, got stranded on the highway near Utrecht and finally, after a two-hour delay, was home at one o’clock at night. So drive carefully. “I have four-wheel drive and winter tires, but if there is ice you will still slide.”
Belgian Simon Geuens (24) is also in good spirits on his way from Antwerp to Amsterdam, as a troubleshooting and maintenance technician for industrial lifts. Geuens: “It is not snowing yet. We have agreed with our manager that we will return if the weather on the road becomes extreme, or if it is too dangerous at the construction site where our customer’s lift is located. We also have to think about our own safety.”
A little further away is trucker Marco Kragt (51). Early this morning at five o’clock, half an hour earlier than usual, he left his hometown of Eindhoven. “I thought it might be difficult.” He is on his way to the first of a long series of addresses, to deliver products from a large hardware store. Kragt: “Not going on the road doesn’t work. It’s order today and delivered tomorrow. And if we don’t drive today, it will be twice as busy tomorrow.”
At the company where my daughter works, everyone was allowed to work from home today, except for the people who live in Breda. That’s why I brought her
Grandma on the road
Other travelers have personal reasons for driving anyway. Ylene Haacke (59) is “actually a fear of the road” and had taken time off from her work as a coach of managers and engineers this week, partly due to the bad weather. She has just brought her daughter, who was staying with her in Geertruidenberg, to her hometown of Breda. “At the company where my daughter works, everyone was allowed to work from home today, except for the people who live in Breda. That’s why I brought her.”
Now she is on her way back, charging her electric car. It’s starting to snow. She will soon be driving very slowly. “I suspect that some people think ‘another grandma on the road’. That used to make me nervous. Now I’m no longer interested. If they start pushing behind me, I think: fine.”
Traffic on the A2 and a cross-country skier on a viaduct near the A12.
Photos Robin van lonkhuijsen and Jeroen Jumelet / ANP
Across the highway, at the Galgeveld gas station, Clenn Scholten is carefully drying the windshield of his van and removing ice from the windshield wipers. Scholten (37) left last night from his hometown of Hoorn and early this morning from Amsterdam, his girlfriend’s hometown, to finish a job in Brussels today.
He works at a company that manufactures mezzanine floors and builds self-storage units. Driving is still possible, “as long as you keep enough distance.” His mother-in-law asked, “What are you getting into?”, but his employer determined that he should start driving if that worked. “And if it doesn’t work, we’ll just drive back quietly.”
70 kilometers per hour
Niels de Hart (49) from Utrecht is taking a rest next to another electric car. Like some other road users, he says that the range of an electric car decreases relatively quickly due to the cold and snow. “Worthless,” he says. “My car normally reaches five hundred kilometers and now only three hundred.” He is on his way to a school in Breda, where he is a teacher. “I really take the warnings from Rijkswaterstaat seriously.” But today there are students who, although they are not obliged to do so, still come to school. And that’s why I decided to be there too. That is a trade-off.”
He drives no faster than seventy kilometers per hour, but still arrives on time, without leaving home early. “I trusted that things would work out.”
Also read
Why is the track so disrupted by a little snow? And what about that IT outage?
The journalistic principles of NRC