A heavy, robust box has been in use in Bad Soden for two months, which can only be moved from one place to another in the city area with the help of a leased trailer.

With the plant, which was already exposed to a butyric acid attack and attempts to destroy it, the municipality is taking more aggressive action against speeders in the city area.

The purchase goes back to a decision by the city councillors, who, according to Mayor Frank Blasch (CDU), were only reacting to the numerous complaints from the population: At citizens' consultation hours, half of the conversations revolve around traffic issues, of which more than 90 percent Complaints about speeding in the residential areas.

Heike Latka

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Main-Taunus district.

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In fact, two-thirds of the subjective experiences of the citizens corresponded to the danger points that were actually identified: Of the 15 positions requested by the police academy to set up the mobile speedometer, ten were approved.

Speed ​​outliers not an isolated case

Experience to date shows that the purchase of the 200,000 euro system was overdue.

The results of the first measurements proved this impressively.

For three weeks, the device has been on Kronthaler Strasse, a quiet 30 km/h residential street with the Drei-Linden elementary school and the fire station.

There, 97 percent of all vehicles drove too fast, including 15 percent faster than 53 kilometers per hour.

A driver even raced through the calmed residential area at 78 km/h.

Unfortunately, such outliers are not an isolated case - on Königsteiner Strasse, Bad Soden's shopping mile, the system registered a top speed of 91 km/h in the middle of the city centre.

There are no protests from citizens against the mobile system.

Everyone he tells about it says: "Please put the box in front of my house," Blasch reported.

The same people blasphemed about the speedometer as soon as they sat in the car and claimed that the city wanted to use the purchase to boost their empty city treasury and distribute even more tickets.

Blasch vehemently contradicts this assessment: he would like to forego any income if this would result in traffic-compliant behavior in accordance with the speed limits.

Warning money of 18,000 euros

Within 530 hours, during which the speed was measured, around 81,000 vehicles were checked and 447 speed violations were registered. Although this is only a proportion of 0.5 percent, reported Blasch, but those affected paid a warning fee of 18,000 euros together. This speaks for significant outliers in the ranks of speed offenders.

Unfortunately, excessive speed often leads to serious accidents. Blasch recalled the car race that two drivers apparently staged on Alleenstrasse in the summer of 2020, with one ending up with serious injuries in the shop window of a household goods store, the second on the lamppost. Such escapades must be prevented with all vigor in the future. Unfortunately, nice-looking smileys on Niederhofheimer Strasse were no longer enough to discipline speeders.

Norbert Altenkamp (CDU), Blasch's predecessor, once praised Bad Soden's drivers for their considerate driving behavior and praised those drivers who immediately took their foot off the gas pedal in the face of a grim smiley face.

Apparently, a friendly admonition is no longer sufficient today: the mobile speedometer will soon be set up on the corner of Niederhofheimer Straße and Kelkheimer Straße.

At this point, too, too many speed violations were recorded, and stricter measures, i.e. fines or the withdrawal of a driver's license, must be taken, says Blasch.