Children's bicycles and plastic cars have become a weapon against speeding drivers
In many rural areas, tricycles and scooters are placed at the roadside. But both the Danish Road Safety Council and the Danish Automobile Association are skeptical about the method.
Søren Nielsen has placed a small toy tractor at the roadside near his house. (Photo: © Peter-Mikkel Pihl Rasmussen) 58 minutes ago
Søren Nielsen lives along a country road near Hoby in southwestern Lolland.
He has both grandchildren and cats, and therefore he has placed a small toy tractor by the road, hoping that motorists on the country road will slow down and pay more attention.
"Some take it seriously, and some are a bit indifferent," says Søren Nielsen.
But neither the Danish Road Safety Council nor the motorists' interest organization FDM are particularly fond of the method, even though they sympathize with the homeowners.
They urge people to bring the tricycles inside and instead get the police and the municipality to help.
> "Some take it seriously, and some are a bit indifferent"
> Søren Nielsen
"I understand that some people become desperate and scared if there is a lot of speeding in their local area. But it is not necessarily the most effective way to improve road safety in the long term," says Jakob Bøving Arendt, director of the Danish Road Safety Council.
In fact, the council believes the method can create safety problems.
"When you have seen the same tricycle standing in the same place for the 14th time in a row, you might not take it as seriously anymore, and then there is the challenge that these vehicles can roll out onto the road and actually pose a danger to road safety."
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The police have tools
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And if you ask the police, they actually have several options to help.
"We can help residents determine whether there is actually a problem with speeding on the road they are concerned about, and we can also carry out speed measurements," says Mikkel Kjærgaard, deputy police inspector at the South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police.
And the speed measurements might get more motorists to slow down.
"We know that when you show up and make your presence known, it has a preventive effect."
"People can remember that the day before or two days before they saw a police motorcycle or a speed camera car or, for that matter, a patrol car parked somewhere," says Mikkel Kjærgaard.
But Søren Nielsen fears that speed checks are not carried out often enough.
"It needs to happen more often than it does now. The motorists who only come here rarely, those driving to their summer houses, they don't see it."
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