The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management will close twenty standby locations for recovery companies next month. That reports The Telegraph. Those places for emergency recovery companies were created in 2019 as a temporary measure at ‘congestion-sensitive places’. The ANWB is against lifting this measure, which would have proven its effectiveness in recent years.
The idea behind the standby locations was that recovery companies could quickly be on site to clear the way after an accident. This meant that traffic jams at points where accidents often occur had to be resolved more quickly. The ministry is now lifting this measure because it would like to use the budgets in a different way to improve road safety and traffic flow. According to a spokesperson, this concerns investments in the road network and traffic systems, the construction and widening of national roads and the spreading of crowds, for example by making regional agreements with employers about working from home.
With the abolition of the measure, ‘dozens of road inspectors’ from Rijkswaterstaat will be put on the street. The ANWB is against abolishing this measure, because it would have proven its effectiveness in terms of both road safety and traffic flow. Marja de Jager, CEO of the ANWB, would therefore like to see the minister reconsider this decision. Due to the abolition of the corona measures, it will become busier on the roads again and a lot of maintenance will be carried out on the road network in the coming years. “That has a major impact on the available capacity,” says De Jager.
Is it a wise decision by the ministry to scrap the standby locations? Give your opinion in the comments.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl