Project Stapscore wins Flemish Road Safety Award 2025

“Working on better sidewalks with Stapscore,” a project to improve the quality of sidewalks in Flanders, has won the Flemish Road Safety Award 2025. The winner was announced on Tuesday at the annual road safety conference organized by the Flemish Foundation for Road Safety (Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde, VSV).

The award is presented to projects contributing to road safety in a neighborhood, company, school, association, or municipality. The initiators want to roll out the Stapscore project widely to systematically improve all footpaths in Flanders.

Poor condition of sidewalks

“Many sidewalks are in poor condition,” the initiators explain. “They are often not wide enough, contain holes and other obstacles, or are even completely absent.”

Many (supra)local authorities value good and safe footpaths. However, converting a good intention into an effective footpath plan often proves difficult due to a lack of data on the current pedestrian infrastructure.

Action plan

That is why Stapscore has developed an application to map the quality of footpaths on the territory of a municipality or city. Unique is the digitalization of a proven methodology and monitoring at a higher level. Based on the results, a concrete action plan for footpaths can be drawn up.

Flemish Minister of Mobility Annick De Ridder (N-VA) emphasized the importance of cooperation between all levels of society to improve road safety. “Road safety is a shared responsibility,” she said. “Only through intensive cooperation between governments, experts, civil society organizations, and citizens can we continue to build safer roads in Flanders.”

‘Fix the mix’

Stapscore is a collaboration between Beweging.net, the Hasselt University Mobility Institute (IMOB), and the non-profit organization Verkeersplatform (Traffic Platform).

Last year, the Flemish Road Safety Award went to “Fix the mix! Everywhere!”, an initiative with which Fietsberaad Vlaanderen aimed to promote safe cycling in mixed traffic.