The municipality of Käerjeng is planning a major reorganisation of its road network to reduce through traffic and make village centres calmer and more liveable.
7.45am, rush hour: around 25,000 vehicles drive through Bascharage alone, with thousands more cutting through nearby villages such as Clemency and Fingig to reach work on time. Mayor Michel Wolter explained that congestion and speeding have become daily frustrations for residents and that traffic was one of the main issues raised before the local elections.
To address the problem, Käerjeng has developed a four-part plan. The entrances to villages will be redesigned with narrower sections to force drivers to slow down. On main roads, the municipality is working with the state to introduce additional measures to reduce speeds. On local 30 km/h roads, the street layout will be changed so that driving faster becomes physically impossible. And finally, the village centres will be redesigned to encourage slower driving and create spaces where residents can once again enjoy their surroundings.
In Hautcharage, a new shared space with a 20 km/h limit will be built next year around the "Um Päsch" playground. In this zone, cars, pedestrians, and cyclists will share the road equally. Currently, 7,000 to 8,000 cars pass through the village centre each day, most of them from outside the municipality. The long-term goal is for only residents to use these roads.
The project will remove five to six parking spaces in the centre to make way for green areas and trees. The traffic reorganisation will cost €5.4 million, with Wolter emphasising that the goal is to improve residents' quality of life by "giving the streets back to the people" and creating roads where pedestrians and cars can coexist, rather than prioritising vehicles alone.
However, municipalities face a challenge from navigation apps such as Waze and Google Maps, which automatically reroute drivers through side roads whenever traffic builds up on main routes. Wolter explained that the aim of modern traffic planning is no longer just to reduce the number of cars on certain streets but to ensure that those passing through move more slowly, improving the overall liveability of local areas.
Altogether, Käerjeng plans to invest €12 million in reorganising its road network over the coming years, with the possibility of further funding increases as the project develops.
