In 2016 Coen van der Gugten, member of the GroenLinks fraction, took the initiative to transform the Mergelweg into a 30 kilometer zone for pedestrians, runners, bikers and skeelers. And make this a safer place by making cars secondairy users of this small country road. Mergelweg is special because it is a border crossing road. Cooperation with the Belgian authorities was successfull for the first time in many years.