The Italian village in Liguria consists of a main road and a small square that everyone passes. Here, near the church, are all the stores, bars and restaurants with their tables and chairs outside. On warm summer evenings it is especially inviting here. Then, everyone is outside, eating and drinking and enlivening this little street in many ways.

In order to get rid of the tiresome problem of parked cars, the inhabitants have found a solution that is extremely innovative for this rural region. They have invested in a truly original measure. It is a fully automatic roadblock that extends a massive steel beam from right to left across the entire width of the road at 5 p.m. sharp. It closes off the area of the bars to exclude disturbing road traffic. This planning idea is ingenious, because when this piece of road is particularly frequented by foot traffic, towards the evening until the night, there is no more annoying car traffic within this narrow area.

Unfortunately, however, it happens on occasion that the traffic sign indicating this temporary closure is overlooked because it is hidden by delivery traffic during the day or because it is simply not big enough to be noticed. Then there are cars parked in the small street. Parked over the day, without the owners having any idea that at 5:00 p.m. the street will be closed with an insurmountable steel beam for the next twelve hours. Visitors who want to continue their journey with their vehicle at 5:05 p.m. have a problem.

Probably it is a situation that recurs in summer. The surprise of strangers to the place turns into early frustration, when it remains completely unclear how one could escape this trap with one's car without having to look for a hotel room for the night. Unfortunately, the police do not react in any way; there is no station at the location and there is no one else who has a key or a numerical code. The lock, however, makes an exception: it reacts automatically to the frequency of the ambulance and police siren in case of an emergency. It initiates an acoustic sensor to deactivate the mechanism and retracts the steel beam. Residents are already familiar with the situation when random, helpless people approach them in the stores or on the street to ask how they could get away. Despite the recurring situation, which has certainly become a nuisance to many by now, the people here are very helpful and extremely resourceful.

The host of the bar always helps. He knows the options that work. It must be either a Vespa Primavera 125 or a Honda Hornet, but often his friends who drive these scooters don't have time or are not around at the moment. Then someone goes into the cellar and gets his chainsaw: "Motorsäga from Stihl always works," he says and takes it to the barrier, pulls the pulling belt of the starter two or three times until the engine starts. The chainsaw howls directly in front of the barrier, again and again in short and longer intervals until the frequency and volume is right.

Suddenly a warning tone sounds and the barrier moves. Slowly the steel beam disappears in its device. The road is clear.

Dolcedo, July 2015