According to VeloVeilig Vlaanderen, a large-scale study on road safety in Flemish cities by newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, in which 27,676 residents participated, Flemish people give an average score of 4.8 out of 10 for general safety in their municipality. That’s a big fail.
According to the study, 25% believe that there are still too many dangerous spots in Flemish streets. However, progress has already been made in many places, and we’ve even surpassed Denmark as a ‘cycling example’, both in terms of the number of cyclists and safety.
Safer situations
Traffic Safety Institute Vias also believes the situation isn’t as bad as the score suggests. “According to objective standards, cycling in Flanders has become safer in recent years,” says spokesperson Stef Willems.
The Flemish accident figures have remained more or less stable since 2015. “We recorded slightly more injury accidents (8,580 last year compared to 8,056 in 2015), but there have also been significantly more cyclists – especially since the coronavirus pandemic. Much more than those 500 additional accidents,” Willems concludes.
Still room for improvement
The situation has improved noticeably, but that does not mean that there is no room for improvement. Meanwhile, the share of cyclist fatalities in the total number of road casualties has risen. Cars have become safer, but cyclists don’t have protective bodies around them.
Another notable finding is that 89% believe that cycle paths are not sufficiently separated from the road. In many cases, this could be addressed immediately if people were willing to give up a portion of their front yard, but most people are unwilling to do so.
Other complaints concern the condition of the road surface (41%), the lighting (41%), and 28% find the assessed streets too busy. Another sticking point is that all road users must adhere to the rules. After all, research has previously shown that motorists and cyclists make mistakes just as often or share responsibility.
