More than 4 million cyclists on Limburg’s bicycle highways in 2024

It has been proven again: Limburg is the cycling paradise par excellence. In 2024, more than four million cyclists – 4,059,224 to be precise – were counted on the bicycle highways—a slight increase compared to the year before despite an extremely wet summer. 

An average of almost 11,300 cyclists passed the counters every day. Limburg has 21 bicycle-counting columns from the province and 32 counting columns from municipalities and the Roads and Traffic Agency along cycle routes.

Counting stations

If you add the other bicycle counting stations along the Limburg cycle paths, the number of cyclists rises to more than 9.1 million. The counting results show that bicycle highways are used by functional cyclists on their way to work or school and often by recreational cyclists.

The top days on the Limburg bicycle highways were Sunday, September 8th, and Sunday, August 11th. The former was a Car-Free Sunday, and the latter was a nice summer weekend in an otherwise wet summer. In general, August is the most popular month for cycling.

Pelt and Hasselt

The busiest cycling point in the province is in Pelt near Skiffel (cycling highways F71 and F74). The counter there registered 480,032 bicycle movements.

Following are the counters in Hasselt, De Langeman bicycle bridge (F72 and F702), the Nijverheidskaai (F5), the counter in Heusden-Zolder at the Circuit Zolder (F5), and the counter at the Railway Bridge in Kuringen (F74), with 464,268, 414,167, 326,066 and 289,390 bicycle movements, respectively.

Cycling attractions

The counter with the strongest increase is situated at the Nijverheidskaai in Hasselt (+12.3 percent in 2024). The counter with the biggest decline (-21.6 percent) is in Houthalen-Helchteren near De Standaard.

Limburg is particularly popular among cyclists. After the launch of cycling projects, such as ‘Cycling through the Water’ in Bokrijk, ‘Cycling through the Trees’ in Bosland, and ‘Cycling through the Heide’ in the Hoge Kempen National Park, cyclists will soon be able to cycle underground, through the marl quarries along the Albert Canal in Riemst.

Elsewhere in Flanders

Cycling has become popular in recent years everywhere in Flanders, and the coronavirus crisis has given the bicycle’s popularity another boost. According to the most recent cycling barometer, we still do most of our journeys by car. We make just under a fifth of our journeys (17%) by (e-)bike.

One-third of our commuting trips happen by bike (30%) or e-bike (1%); 10% of shopping trips are made by bike (10%) or e-bike (7%). 77% of families own at least one bicycle, regardless of the drivetrain. 36% own at least one e-bike.