Zebra crossings are a great invention, especially for school children. However, they must be born in the right country. There are states, including popular holiday destinations, where zebra crossings are more of a loose recommendation for action and do not need to be observed more strictly than traffic lights that are red. Zebra crossings are something like elaborately designed signposts that show the tourist: This is the way to cross the street, but please be careful, there are cars driving. In Germany it’s different. Recently, in front of the kindergarten, a BMW even stopped.
In Krumbach, however, the Germans’ unconditional love for zebra crossings was almost over. No school child could have felt safe setting foot on the road there. As several media outlets credibly assert, a regular police officer and traffic officer noticed that the stripes at a local zebra crossing measure 40 centimeters. But it has to be 50 centimeters. Now you can’t expect any German, let alone BMW drivers, to stop in such a case. Especially since some of the stripes didn’t even reflect. To ensure that the question of liability in the event of an accident is clearly clarified, the contracted company that caused the error immediately began repairs.
The people of Krumbach are still lucky that there is now only a zebra crossing. A higher-level authority could have come up with the idea that a traffic light should be there.
In Kissing, Swabia, they had to invest a lot of money in new speed limit signs in the summer because a citizen was a little too eager. He was bothered by the fact that most of a street was signposted at 50 km/h, then for a short stretch at 80 km/h and finally at 60 km/h. Instead, he called for a uniform speed limit of 50 in urban areas. He also informed the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior of this, which he should have left alone.
Although the road passes a residential area, there can be no question of a closed development. The community knew this, but kept their feet quiet for the benefit of the citizens. In the end, under pressure from the Ministry of the Interior, Kissing was forced to post 70 km/h speed limit signs throughout – to the delight of the residents.