Brussels bike ban plan for pedestrian zone ‘dangerous and absurd’ | Belgium
On an unseasonably mild winter day, people gather in Le Piétonnier, the pedestrian area in the heart of Brussels. Tourists buy mulled wine and sweets at the Christmas market outside the Stock Exchange, the former stock exchange now repurposed as a beer museum. Several people are drinking coffee on cafe terraces. People come and go up and down the 650 meter long area, bikes and scooters move in and out of the crowd.
Next year the landscape will look a little different: Bicycles and scooters will be banned from this 18,000 square meter pedestrian zone for most of the day. People on two wheels will be allowed to cycle only between 4am and 11am. Other times they have to get out of their vehicles and push them onto the street or face a fine.
Anaïs Maes, city advisor responsible for urban planning and mobility, suggested that not all cyclists comply with the current 6-kilometer speed limit. “In everyday reality, people do not respect or do not know this rule, and this causes conflicts.”
Maes, a member of the Dutch-speaking socialist Voorhuit party, is aware of “minor accidents” and complaints from pedestrians. “I have heard many people, especially older people, people with young children, or people with limited mobility, say: [that] “They don’t feel safe because they’re afraid they won’t be able to pull over quickly enough or they’ll get shot.”
Brussels officials have not decided exactly when the change will come into force, as negotiations on implementation continue within the council.
In a way, Brussels Pietonnier is a victim of its own success. Expanded a decade ago to make the city greener, quieter and cleaner, the project transformed part of the center from a traffic-clogged, four-lane road into a space for walkers, strollers and cyclists, revitalizing cafe terraces and outdoor gatherings. It was a transformative change for a city that had long suffered from its love affair with the car in the mid-20th century.
For example, the Grand-Place, the magnificent central square with its intricate, gold-leafed guild halls and gothic town hall, was effectively a car park until 1972, and traffic was not completely banned in the square and its cobbled surroundings until 1991.
The decision in 2015 to expand the pedestrian zone by banning cars from a large shopping area around Place de La Bourse was initially controversial. Maes, who was not on the council at the time, said idealistic planners believed pedestrians and cyclists could share the space. “The city of Brussels had this idea: We were creating a space that is multimodal and where everyone would find their place; I think it’s sad, but in reality it doesn’t always work and then you have to find solutions.”
Danielle Peeters, a cyclist who works for a Dutch-speaking association, thinks the ban is a shame. “I think it’s a bit radical,” he says, parked his bike outside a ramen bar. “Of course I slow down when there are too many people, but there are also people cycling very, very fast.”
“Alex,” a 43-year-old Ukrainian mountaineering guide who works as a takeaway delivery courier and gave the pseudonym, said this would cause difficulties for him because he would not be able to receive deliveries, but said there were bigger problems, citing the war in Ukraine. “For me it’s not a big deal, but they could do a better job of painting the bike lanes.”
That’s the goal of local bike safety groups. Some say conflict between cyclists and pedestrians was a foreshadowed story in the decision not to create a dedicated bike lane.
One open letter In a December publication, a dozen cyclists and road safety groups condemned the ban as “dangerous and absurd” and argued that the city’s proposed alternative route for cyclists (three streets parallel to the pedestrian zone) was unsafe.
On this alternative route, bicycles share busy roads with cars, buses and buses; Cycling groups say there are many blind spots and drivers who ignore the ban on overtaking cyclists.
Bernards Heymans, chief executive of Heroes for Zero, a grassroots road safety movement, said the proposed alternative route was “uncomfortable” and even dangerous, especially for child cyclists.
“If cyclists are banned in Piétonnier, then we would really like a second way for cyclists to access the city centre,” he said. “If we find a completely safe second way, of course everyone will choose the second way.”
Maes doesn’t think a separate bike lane in the pedestrian zone is the solution. “It doesn’t increase security because when each mode has its own designated area [cyclists] Go faster,” he said, which could also lead to conflicts with pedestrians crossing that lane.
He said he was working hard to create a safe alternative route: “We’re trying to solve the mobility-security problem, but what I don’t want to do is create a bigger problem.”
