No, there won't be parking fines on motorway

Luxembourg's motorways are notoriously overcrowded as workers from Luxembourg and across the borders make their way to and from work during peak hours in the morning and evening. While work is underway to add additional lanes onto some motorways, this is expected to take up to five years.

It is also a solution that circumvents the actual problem rather than addressing the core issue of non-moving vehicles, says Luc Schneider of the Luxembourg Automotive Mobility Federation, who first proposed the new law through a public petition that amassed more than 8,000 signatures.

Speaking to our Luxembourgish colleagues on RTL Radio this Friday morning, Schneider argued that our motorways are not the problem: "It's simple mathematics," said Schneider, "most motorways have two lanes. That means two cars can easily drive alongside each other, meaning there is no reason for traffic to slow down. Problems tend to be blamed on motorway exits and entries, which tend to be single lane, but fact is that the number of cars that join a motorway via an entry is roughly equal to the number that exit it around the same point."

There is thus no logical explanation as to why traffic should build up. What it comes down to, according to Schneider, is people "unwilling to pay for parking at their destination," as well as "malevolent characters with nothing better to do, who simply decide to slow down or stop altogether to hold up traffic behind them."

This, he says, explains why there is very rarely any clear and logical reason why traffic suddenly begins to flow. "You're stuck in traffic, standing completely still or doing 5 km/h, for fifteen minutes ... and suddenly you reach an arbitrary point of road where everything seems to clear up. What's actually happened is that whoever was holding traffic up simply decided to speed up. That's it."

This argument won favour in the Chamber, where an absolute majority decided to adopt a new law that will see parking attendants patrolling the country's motorways during peak hours. Anyone found at a standstill will be issued the maximum fine of €175 - unless there is clear evidence of an accident or car malfunction - while those moving too slow (defined as below 75% of the speed limit) will be issued a fine of €95.

The law will come into force on 31 April.