May 27, 2022
The French government is working on a project to provide the poorest inhabitants with an electric car at a cost of 100 euros per month. The proposal, first proposed by the Socialist candidate and mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and promised by newly elected president Emmanuel Macron during his first campaign speech on 17 March, […]
May 25, 2022
The Flemish government must pay environmental organization Greenpeace a penalty of 850 000 euros. The Air Policy Plan drawn up after a judgment by the Brussels Court of First Instance does not meet the requirements of that judgment, Greenpeace reports. “Flanders still does not have a sufficiently ambitious air action plan,” the organization denounces. No […]
May 24, 2022
Road safety institute Vias advocates the rapid introduction of a driving license based on points to which measures and judicial sanctions are automatically linked up to a certain level. This is stated in a study commissioned by Federal Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), and for which a comparison was made with the practices of […]
May 23, 2022
In 2021, there were 41,1 million trucks, mostly foreign, on Belgium’s roads. Never before has this number been so high. This is evident from the report for its operating year drawn up by Viapass, the organisation that manages the kilometer charge for trucks in Belgium. Consequently, revenues for the kilometer charge are also peaking: 822 […]
May 23, 2022
Belgian Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) wants the penalties for speeding to be more proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and the risk to other road users, especially the most vulnerable. It is no coincidence that the Minister is launching this trial balloon now. Accident statistics are not good in Belgium. The figures […]
May 23, 2022
The district court of Detmold started a historic court trial against Volkswagen on Friday. The accusor is Ulf Allhoff-Cramer, a German organic farmer who claims that the German car giant is responsible for the demise of his farm, with his crops and animals suffering from global warming. Greenpeace supports the court case. Allhoff-Cramer is a […]
May 20, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open VLD) wants to have people who buy an electric bike guided to a training course by the salesperson. The Minister wants to do that to counter the rising accident figures. One in four of the victims of an injury accident in Flanders in the first three months of […]
May 20, 2022
Road signs warning for crossing toads, ducklings, or deer are a familiar sight on Belgian roads. But in Wetteren, commuters on the cycle highway alongside the railway are now warned of a new species: wall lizards. Their growing population led to a casualty rate demanding precautionary measures. The population of wall lizards living asides from […]
May 13, 2022
On Tuesday, the Norwegian government put forward a proposal to apply taxes to the sales of electric cars, putting an end to their world-renowned incentive scheme that electrified the national fleet over the past few years. The Norsk Elbilforening, or Electric Car Association, reacts with disapproval. Thanks to VAT exemption and a host of benefits […]
May 13, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants to know the effect of lowering the speed on the highways around Ghent. She, therefore, ordered a study, the Minister announced on Thursday in the Mobility Commission of the Flemish Parliament. The Minister hopes she will be able to start a test phase based on the […]
May 12, 2022
More than a third of Belgian companies will not make the switch to a fully electric car park by 2026, the deadline the government is setting for new company vehicles sold to be electric. This is shown by an online survey by insurer AON and FLEET Magazine. The reasons are diverse, the 200 respondents say. […]
May 11, 2022
A new trial involving nearly 400 families living in the area affected by noise pollution from flights of Brussels National Airport is targeting the Belgian government. The civil lawsuit, led by the civic organizations Wake up Crainhem and AWACSS, has been launched at the Brussels Court of First Instance, writes the newspaper La Libre Belgique. […]
May 06, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters’ plans to reorganize the training system for candidate drivers has provoked severe criticism. Mostly criticized is the idea that young drivers have to go through a training period of five to six months before they can take their practical exam unless they cough up a lot of money (€1 […]
May 05, 2022
According to a new study by the Walloon Road Safety Agency (AWSR), published on the occasion of a new awareness-raising campaign being held throughout May, one in 20 drivers follow online meetings while driving. The proportion of this new phenomenon even rises to one in six for those in management positions. The inhabitants of Walloon […]
May 05, 2022
In a television interview, Norwegian Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård has unveiled that the government is reconsidering the EV incentives that helped push electric car sales to almost 90%. Scrapping the benefits must get more people out of their cars. Free municipal parking. No tolls on ferries. Access to bus lanes. No annual road tax. […]
May 05, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants to reorganize the training of drivers to get their license. She pleads for a practice period of at least five months and a temporary driver’s license. She also wants to introduce a mandatory training session for coaches, often parents who’re training their son or daughter. They […]
May 03, 2022
The Flemish Foundation for Traffic Science (Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde, VSV) launches a new campaign against cell phones at the wheel. VSV discovered that more than eight out of ten drivers regularly use their smartphones while driving. Driving with a hand-held cell phone more than doubles the risk of an accident. Dialing alone multiplies that risk […]
April 29, 2022
The Brussels Government had definitively approved the Master Plan for the Delta-Herrmann-Debroux area. The main ambition of this urban project is to redevelop the E411 axis into an urban boulevard, put an end to highways in the heart of the region, and reconnect neighborhoods that, although neighboring, are very little connected. The Brussels Government had […]
April 29, 2022
The Brussels Government is raising its ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas from 40 to 47% by 2030 compared to 2005. To this end, subsidies for gas-fired condensing boilers will be abolished in 2023, and the move away from fossil fuels will be accelerated without waiting for the next legislature. This emerges from the policy guidelines […]
April 29, 2022
The metro station Albert in Forrest will be linked directly to the university districts (ULB-VUB) of Ixelles. The Brussels Region and the Brussels transport company MIVB/STIB have agreed on this. The Brussels Government, on the other hand, has definitively approved the draft ordinance on taxi services of Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS). The text now goes […]
April 28, 2022
From 1 May, parking in the center of Brussels will become more expensive, to discourage long-term parking and encourage drivers to use public car parks. In addition, a second resident card will become more expensive. The local council of Brussels approved these new parking regulations in December last year, but they will come into effect […]
April 27, 2022
The King’s Prosecutor in the Belgian Halle-Vilvoorde district has decided to crack down on drivers using their cell phones while driving. When caught, drivers will automatically be banned from driving for eight days to start. Further, they will be liable to a driving ban of up to five years with a fine of up to […]
April 26, 2022
Already wanted in Japan (where he fled jurisdiction in December 2019) and searched for by Interpol, former Alliance President Carlos Ghosn is now also persecuted in France. French justice wants to investigate alleged misuse of public goods, money laundering, and corruption. The now 68-year-old car tycoon fell from grace in 2018 when he was at […]
April 25, 2022
In 2021, the police fined a record number of drivers for speeding, data VTM News could lay hands on shows. During the first six months of the year, 12 810 infringements per day were registered. Enough to break the record figures from 2020. To be specific, 4 060 468 fines were issued in 2020. Corona […]
April 25, 2022
Since the start of the kilometer charge for trucks in 2016, nearly 64 million euros in Flemish fines have been issued. However, almost 21 million euros of that budget has yet to be received. The information came to light upon request from Flemish parliamentary group chairman Peter Van Rompuy (CD&V), who interjected Flemish Finance Minister […]
April 22, 2022
The environmental organization Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) complains about the indecisiveness of the Flemish government to tax pick-ups properly. Already in 2020, Flemish Finance Minister Diependaele announced that the taxing of pick-ups would be changed. But, until now, nothing has happened. In Belgium, pick-ups are considered to be light commercial vehicles. This means they don’t […]
April 22, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), has announced the arrival of 43 new average speed checks along the regional roads in Flanders. Local authorities submitted a request for them. “They are best qualified to judge local traffic situations,” explains Minister Peeters. Flanders already has 251 average speeds checks, bringing the total number to […]
April 21, 2022
The Belgian Chamber Committee for Mobility has given the green light for a bill regulating the use of e-scooters in traffic. The new law will provide an age limit of 16, and in the future, e-scooters will be banned from footways. The bill still needs to be approved by the plenary chamber. The e-scooters have […]
April 21, 2022
From 1 January 2023, Belgium will ban smoking on station platforms of railway company NMBS/SNCB. On Wednesday, the Chamber’s Mobility Committee approved a bill proposed by the green fraction for this purpose. According to the authors, a similar measure is already in place in the Netherlands, with success. NMBS/SNCB supports the decision to make platforms […]
April 19, 2022
The Mexican parliament yesterday approved a law as a first step to nationalize the country’s lithium reserves, the primary metal used for EV batteries today. According to the specialized website Mining technology, Mexico has significant resources in the northern state of Sonora. In Bacadéhuachi, in the state of Sonora, the Anglo-Canadian exploration company Bacanora Minerals […]
April 15, 2022
In Flanders and Brussels, the rates for the kilometer charge for trucks will be increased on 1 July. It is an index adjustment. In Wallonia, the tariffs for the toll were indexed on 1 January. Viapass, the public body that coordinates and monitors the kilometer charge in Belgium, also reports that no paying toll roads […]
April 12, 2022
As the number of electric vehicles (EVs) is growing, the need for clear charging rules is rising too. For example, in Arnhem (north of Holland), a court has condemned an EV owner to finally pay the fine he got in 2020 for occupying a charging point for too long. The EV owner had refused to […]
April 12, 2022
The number of seriously injured traffic victims in the Netherlands has increased spectacularly (+18%) in the last ten years. In 2021, 110 000 Dutch traffic victims ended up in Intensive Care; 66 600 of them had serious injuries, mainly caused by bicycle accidents. One out of three (44%) were cyclists aged 55 or older, followed […]
April 11, 2022
After a pilot project launched in October 2021, Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld), has announced that all average speed checks on Belgian highways will be permanently operational before the summer. Drivers exceeding a speed of 129 km/hour will be fined automatically. Average speed checks are considered to be more effective than speed […]
April 07, 2022
The VAT on bicycles and e-bikes will not be reduced to 6% in Belgium, according to a Royal Decree published in the Belgian Official Journal on Wednesday. Instead, the government now wants to use the reserved budget of 80 million euros for alternative mobility policies to promote cycling in commuting. The House had unanimously approved […]
April 07, 2022
During the first half of 2021, more than 1,6 million drivers in Flanders – 11% more than in the same period in 2019 – were caught speeding. More than half of them (27,4%) drove more than 10 km/hour faster than the allowed speed limit. The figures are based on statistics of the Federal Police. “Speeding […]
April 01, 2022
The Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), rejects the idea of introducing a maximum speed limit of 100 km/hour on the highways. Yesterday, we wrote that Groen, Flanders’ green political party, had suggested introducing a temporary speed limit of 100 kph on the highways. The measure would improve safety, save money and fuel, […]
March 25, 2022
Flanders wants to force a new ‘peak capacity tariff’ to calculate the part of every household’s electricity invoice for grid maintenance and managing by July 1st, 2022. But from several quarters in the energy sector and politics, pressure rises to ask the Flemish energy regulator VREG to postpone this by one year due to soaring […]
March 25, 2022
Ride-hailing giant Uber is smoking the peace pipe with the New York yellow cabs by integrating their service on its app. Users and yellow cab drivers will be informed before booking on the nature of their ride and subsequent prices. Each has the option to reject. Nothing much changes on the streets, as only taxis […]
March 24, 2022
According to the newspaper L’Echo, Euro 4 diesel cars driving inside the Brussels Low-Emission Zone (LEZ) won’t be fined until July. The newspaper reports that the official reason is new car delivery delays, but it also cites a computer bug at Brussels Taxation. Since January, Euro 4 diesel cars have been supposedly banned from the […]
March 23, 2022
While the reform on the Walloon car tax is drafted, with the implementation of CO2 emission standards and weight limits in the calculation, it’s fermenting trouble with opposition and the majority alike. Some fear it could rule out family estate cars in the future. Others think people will find a loophole by private leasing in […]
March 22, 2022
Motorized two-wheelers are more popular than ever in Belgium. Last year, 30 526 people received a driver’s license for such vehicles. That is 47,4% more than in 2020, and 22,4% more than in 2019, the pre-corona year. The figures come from the Belgian car and two-wheeler federation Febiac. Motorized two-wheelers used to be considered ideal […]
March 22, 2022
The US State of Washington has passed a bill banning the sale, purchase, and registration of new gasoline-powered vehicles of the model year 2030 or later. If it becomes law, Washington will phase out internal combustion vehicles five years earlier than other ‘leading’ states like, for example, California. The transportation package is called ‘Move Ahead […]
March 18, 2022
The Flemish Minister for Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), allocates an additional 1,6 million euros to tackle illegal dumping along the Flemish highways. Last year, the Agency for Roads and Traffic (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, AWV) collected 1,34 million kg (1 343 tons) of trash along the Flemish regional roads and highways. A decrease of […]
March 17, 2022
The die is cast. The Ministers of Mobility of the different Belgian governments have finally decided to ban e-scooters from the footway. From now on, they have to ride on the bike-way, just like in many other European countries. Furthermore, all those younger than 16 are no longer allowed to ride an e-scooter on public […]
March 17, 2022
An electric car in the style of the VW Beetle was presented at the Shanghai Motor Show last year. The Beetle-like vehicle comes from Ora, a subsidiary of Chinese manufacturer Great Wall Motors. Now it looks like Volkswagen needs to hurry if it really wants to file a lawsuit for plagiarism. The Chinese Ministry of […]
March 16, 2022
The noisiest and heaviest aircraft must be banned from Brussels Airport. That is what the Federal Ombudsman for the national airport, Philippe Touwaide, has stated at a press conference on Tuesday. “There are infringements every night, and we don’t pursue them,” Touwaide said, citing the case of noisy aircraft such as Boeing 777s at night […]
March 15, 2022
Finally, the Belgian Federal Government has reached an agreement on Monday evening to lower the excise on fuel and bring the VAT on gas back to six percent, like decided earlier for electricity. This will cost the government at least 1,3 billion euros. It comes on top of the 1,1 billion euros foreseen for the […]
March 15, 2022
The Flemish government will increase premiums for renovation, insulation, heat pumps, and renewable energy for this and next year. The budget will go up from 440 to 658 million euros, or 218 million euros more to subsidize heat pumps, solar boilers or insolation works at homes up to €25 000. The main goal is to […]
March 14, 2022
Physical aggression in traffic increases. According to traffic safety institute Vias, the number of cases tripled in five years. Last year, seven percent of drivers were confronted with it. In 2017, it was hardly 2%. General aggression, however, like swearing or calling names, declined slightly, from 57% in 2017 to 54% in 2021. Remarkable is […]
March 14, 2022
The Brussels Parliament has approved the proposal to better regulate shared e-scooters, bikes, and mopeds. The text provides compulsory parking in drop zones, reduced speed in pedestrian zones, and stricter enforcement. The latter is meant to tackle the nuisance of e-scooters lying around and the lack of safety in pedestrian zones. From now on, there […]
March 11, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) doesn’t want a ‘refresh’ test for car drivers ten years after they’ve passed their initial driving tests. “Keeping one’s traffic knowledge up-to-date is every road user’s responsibility,” she said. Sector organization GOCA Flanders, responsible for the driver’s license exams and technical control centers, has proposed to check […]
March 09, 2022
Given the preparation for the new Euro 7/VII emission standards (expected for this summer), the European car manufacturers association ACEA insists that the EU authorities should revise the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD). ACEA has already issued its position about the Renewable Energy Use Directive (RED) and now turns its attention to the FQD because it […]
March 09, 2022
Minister for Climate Transition and Environment Alain Maron (Ecolo) announced that the city of Brussels had approved the budget hike for its scrappage scheme for cars. It is now raised from €750 000 to €3 million. The money serves to convert the Brussels’Air bonus into a full-scale mobility budget. Residents of the Belgian capital can […]
March 08, 2022
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced his decision to expand the Ultra-Low-Emission Zone (ULEZ) to all of Greater London. As for now, the zone covers the areas within the North and South Circular Roads, but under the expansion, the whole territory within the M25 will be monitored for polluting cars. The rules remain […]
February 28, 2022
Belgian rail network manager, Infrabel, and rail company NMBS/SNCB will be able to invest an additional 445 million euros in the coming years thanks to European and federal money. The money comes on top of the investments via the traditional allocations they receive. For Infrabel, it is 357 million euros, for NMBS/SNCB 88 million euros. […]
February 28, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), is planning to reserve 300 million euros for safe and comfortable bicycle infrastructure. On top of that, she will set free 15 million euros to improve bottlenecks on regional roads, and 5 million euros for lighted crossings for cyclists and pedestrians. Another 8 million euros will be […]
February 22, 2022
The Brussels City Council has given the go-ahead to the new circulation plan for the capital’s Pentagon by a large majority. The new circulation plan aims to reduce transit traffic in the busy downtown districts and give pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport space. The intention of the alderman for Mobility Bart Dhondt’s plan is to […]
February 22, 2022
Brussels Minister of Mobility, Elke Van den Brandt (Groen), is happy with the results of the latest traffic safety barometer of traffic safety institute Vias. The number of road deaths in Brussels went down from 14 to 6, while Flanders registered an increase of 18%. “The ‘City 30′ project (30 kph speed limit in Brussels) […]
February 18, 2022
After just over a year of “Zone 30”, Brussels Mobility is launching a new road safety campaign to raise awareness of the need to respect the maximum speed limit. The new road safety campaign is a nod to cult horror films and warns drivers not to turn into monsters at the wheel, to remain relaxed […]
