The traffic problems at Flanders Expo on Friday night provoked angry reactions all weekend from those who wanted to go to the big Zillion party. According to the Mobility Company, it was a combination of circumstances.
Queuing for an hour and a half for a parking space was no exception. According to the organization of Zillion Projexxx, this was partly because the party mainly attracts an older audience, people who take the car faster than public transport. Moreover, the latter is not obvious because tram line 1, which runs to Flanders Expo, has been interrupted since September due to works.
And there are still reasons to think of. The Mobility Company of the City of Ghent, operator of the large car parks on the site, worked with barriers for the first time on Friday evening. ‘People had to get to know it a bit,’ says Els Vanderkimpen of the Mobility Company. ‘Buying a ticket does indeed lead to some delays. When driving out, we normally work with number plate recognition, but that system can’t handle that many people.’
Aggression
Given the masses who wanted to enter the site in a very short period of time, Vanderkimpen believes that everything went relatively smoothly. ‘Yes, of course there were teething problems and we are going to work on that. But the biggest flaw was the aggression on the track. Motorists had no patience and sometimes drove each other off the track to be five minutes earlier. The parking lot was then pulled up dangerously again. Fortunately there were no major accidents.’
Alain D’Haese of Easyfairs, the operator of Flanders Expo, denies that the location cannot handle such peaks. ‘This is much less of a problem at other major events. Over time, we have opened parking D and the Ikea parking. In addition, there was a police check that hindered traffic a bit.’ The police then denounced that some motorists simply remained on the street to drop people off, which also caused problems.
Charlotte White
Alderman for Mobility Filip Watteeuw (Groen) calls on organizations of major events to communicate clearly about alternatives to the car. ‘If you send a hundred times more cars than usual somewhere in a short period of time, you will of course run into problems. Organizers need to look more closely at their environment.’
The big question on Saturday was whether it would go wrong again that evening. Then Charlotte De Witte from Ghent played for almost 20,000 techno fans in Flanders Expo. “There were no major traffic problems,” says police spokesman Matto Langeraert. ‘The audience was significantly younger and mainly took the bicycle. In addition, shuttle buses were deployed from the station to Flanders Expo. Everything went smoothly.’
