“Do you really have to go to Talsi via Riga?!” – this is what the residents of Roja are asking today, who have been fighting for the hope of fixing the road to the county center for more than 30 years. Powerlessness has increased so much that around 250 cars went on a protest drive.
Already in the first minutes, when the gathering for the protest ride began, several dozen cars had arrived, until four o’clock in the afternoon, when the ride began, the number grew continuously. Some of them decorated their cars themselves, many used the Roja flag, and others tied warning tapes to draw attention. Although it has been said before that the road Talsi – Roja is one of the reasons why residents of Roj want to withdraw from Talsi county, because, in their opinion, the county management had to keep their hand on the pulse so that the promises to fix the road would not disappear, but the residents admit that today the main emphasis is directly to the road problem, not the reform, and as a public fui to those responsible at the national level. “We’ve even crashed a spare wheel in the trunk. Twice already. That’s why I’m participating in this campaign, so that something is changed. To be able to call them higher. So that our roads are repaired,” says Dāvis, a protest participant.
“My car has 14-inch wheels. In this case, it is more profitable for me… I even violated the traffic rules, I drove at 100-110 km/h in that section. Because then I simply flew over those holes, all those corns that were poured on top, or holes (especially in spring). But I believe that this is not normal,” says Uldis, a protest participant.
195 cars left the open-air stage with Roja’s blue hope piglets in the lead, and more participants joined along the way. The most critical section is from Roja to Valdemārpilij, so the journey started in both of these places at the same time, and protesters met on the way. In Valdemārpils there are around 30 cars in the column. The active residents who organized the protest trip believe that this is only the first small step, and that the attention is already a significant achievement.
