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The “Economist” said last week that ““DON’T WALK” signals hypnotise German pedestrians even when no car is in sight.”

Don’t believe a word of it.

Around here, everyone subscribes to the theory that “Rules are made for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.”

And no-one wants to be categorised as a fool, now do they..?

This is the railway crossing in Gonsenheim.

On the other side of the tracks, there’s a sizeable light industrial estate that’s grown and grown over the years.

For yonks, there was a sign to the effect that you couldn’t cross the lines at this point unless you were a tractor, this being a direct route from the village (where farmers still live) to the fields.

No-one paid any attention, of course.

First of all, no-one’s a fool and secondly, it’s either that or a 2.5 km detour via the only legal access road.

Instead of 100 metres.

At some stage, the city fathers were tired of being ignored and put up a physical barrier that allows we cyclists and them pedestrians through, but no cars.

Or tractors, for that matter.

So everyone moans, but does the 2.5km.

Last winter, there’s a humongous fire that closes off the access road.

Burns forever – obviously starts in the late afternoon, just before clocking-off time – and  chaos unsues.

Some folk head off through the fields in the dark, take a wrong turn and end up to the axles in the quagmire.

BFE, a major supplier of mobile TV studios to the broadcasting industry, had an articulated truck loaded and ready to go to meet a contractual deadline and they formed a human chain, moving a whole TV studio box by box across the tracks.

Uproar in the papers.

City Fathers decided that a second legal access road would be a GOOD IDEA.

Hasn’t happened yet.

Only in Mainz…

04 Aug This entry was published on 4 August, 2008 at 11:00. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged Gonsenheim, Suburbs. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.