A safe way to school, who would not want that for their children?
A number of municipalities lamented inaction from the government and thus launched their own road safety campaigns to increase children's visibility and incentivise drivers to slow down.
In Frisange, for instance, two awareness figures, entitled "Zoé and Arthur", were installed next to the road to imitate children wanting to cross the street. However, despite the good intentions, the Ministry for Mobility and Public Works has now ordered that the statues be taken down.
Minister Bausch explained that the statues look too lifelike and may cause confusion. Furthermore, the friendly faces of the children, paired with numerous other animal figures and coloured zebra crossings, creates a false sense of safety. A similar reasoning was already stated by the traffic commission back in 2019, which also underlined that drivers get used to statues and overtime actually decrease their attention in the surrounding areas.
Minister Bausch further noted that the same kind of symbol should be used across the country. He himself does not have anything against personal initiatives and creativity, but believes that a universal approach will bring better results.
Frisange council members are dissatisfied with the order to remove the statues, noting that their initiatives keep getting blocked from the government. Regardless of their complaints and proposals, nothing is changing around traffic.
