September 23, 2022
The circulation plan in the Cureghem district of the Brussels commune Anderlecht has caused quite a commotion in recent days. The municipal council had to be broken off, disgruntled residents sabotaged, and there is uncertainty about how to proceed. As a result, the decision may be reversed instead of being ratified in the coming days. […]
September 22, 2022
When the Good Move plan and the new parking ordinance were introduced in Brussels, it was already clear that 53% of Brussels households do not own a car on average. That average rises to 70% among the poorest quarter of the population. Still, there are nearly half a million cars registered in Brussels. A new […]
September 22, 2022
During the last seven months of 2022, the number of employees who opted for a mobility budget in Belgium increased to 0,022% compared to 0,015% last year. These figures still are disappointingly low, but there is a change. Teleworking and the possibility to finance rent or mortgage loans make the difference. The mobility budget was […]
September 21, 2022
Energy consumption and car use are the first two domains where Belgians are adapting their behavior today to cope with uncertain times. Sixty-nine percent say to change how they use energy drastically (23%) or in a limited way (46%). Car use comes second (57%), before food (53%), travel (52%), and clothing (50%). On its first […]
September 21, 2022
Government party Open Vld wants the Fleming to be able to travel unlimitedly by bus or tram during the winter months for one euro a day. This reports De Morgen, and the news has been confirmed to press agency Belga. According to De Morgen, Flemish Mobility Minister Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) has put a striking […]
September 20, 2022
Working from home is increasingly popular in Belgium. The number of teleworkers doubled in four years. The good news is that this trend has saved us millions of kilometers a day and, on top of that, traffic safety has improved. That is what a Federal Public Service (FPS) for Mobility survey, based on figures from […]
September 20, 2022
Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) has given the go-ahead to establish so-called ‘middle lanes’. This new type of public road should ensure greater safety for vulnerable road users, especially cyclists. The adaptation of the traffic regulations will take effect from 1 October. The pressure group Cyclists Association (Fietsersbond) does not react highly enthusiastically. Initial studies […]
September 19, 2022
The ‘Smart to Antwerp’ app (Slim naar Antwerpen) for smartphones, which was developed to direct visitors intelligently to the city, will get an update and now includes a practical GPS navigation system. The update maps out a smart route combining train, bus, bike, boat, shared cars, e-bikes, or e-scooters and informs the user where to […]
September 19, 2022
Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB wants to make train tickets about 10% more expensive starting in February, the newspaper De Tijd wrote on Saturday. Minister for Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) is working on solutions to ensure that train passengers experience as little impact as possible from the rising costs facing NMBS/SNCB. The price increase consists […]
September 16, 2022
The number of all-electric passenger cars in Belgium stood at 71 651 on August 1st. This is still just a bubble in a fleet of nearly 6 million cars powered by gasoline and diesel, but it is an increase of 75,4% year-on-year, figures from statistics agency Statbel show. Brussels takes the lead in terms of […]
September 16, 2022
A recent Greenpeace East Asia (GPEA) report ranking global car manufacturers on their environmental credentials has placed Toyota at the bottom of the list. According to the study, the Auto Environmental Guide 2022 discovered that fossil fuels still power 499 out of every 500 Toyota models sold worldwide. General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen performed best […]
September 15, 2022
The Dutch bicycle manufacturer Roetz launches its newest e-bike innovation. As its name already reveals, the ‘Roetz Life’, as the new e-bike is called, is intended to be ‘a bicycle for life’. The modular frame is made of high-quality materials and can be reconfigured to be useful through several stages of people’s lives. The Roetz […]
September 15, 2022
During the European Week of Mobility – from 16 to 22 September – various events will take place all over Flanders and in Brussels. One of those events is Car-free Sunday, 18 September, in which thirty-two municipalities in Flanders and Brussels will participate. Among the participants: Mechelen, Lier, Aalst, Ostend, Leuven, Tongeren, Hasselt, and Turnhout. […]
September 15, 2022
Flemish Mobility Minister, Lydia Peeters, and her Brussels Finance colleague, Sven Gatz, (both Open Vld) are calling for an agreement between the Brussels Region and Flanders linking smart road pricing to a partial widening of the Ring Road. They say this in an interview with the Brussels weekly BRUZZ. There have already been initial talks […]
September 14, 2022
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat, one of Brussels’ busiest approach roads with the presence of several notable Belgian and EU governmental buildings, may get a two-way bike lane, separated from car traffic and pedestrians. This corresponds to the current test set-up. So reports Brussels Mobility Minister Elke Van den Brandt (Groen). The minister hopes the works […]
September 14, 2022
One out of five Belgian employees (20%) needs more than two hours a day to commute. Although most Belgians work in their own province, Belgian commuters cover the most extended distances. On the other hand, employees in Sweden and Finland hardly spend 30 minutes commuting. These are the most remarkable conclusions of a recent survey […]
September 13, 2022
Last summer, the airports of Antwerp and Ostend-Bruges welcomed almost 50% more passengers than last year. After two years of travel restrictions, the airports welcomed almost 160 000 passengers during the summer holidays. This means that these Flemish regional airports, managed by the French engineering group Egis, currently have 80% of the number of passengers […]
September 13, 2022
ALD Automotive, Europe’s biggest leasing company, launches in Belgium ‘ALD Move’, a ‘Mobility-as-a-Service’ (MaaS) assistant developed with Skipr that advises on the best home-work commuter and professional travel solutions on a day-per-day basis using artificial intelligence. It’s a logical step, as ALD last year entered the capital of D’Ieteren’s daughter Skipr with a 17% stake, […]
September 12, 2022
Today, bicycle leasing is more popular than ever among Belgian commuters. In the first six months of the year, the number of commuters who used a leased bike to ride to and from work increased by 9,1% compared to last year. Compared to three years ago, it’s an increase of 127,2%. The figures come from […]
September 12, 2022
Now that life has become so expensive with the peaking energy prices, Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld), wants to introduce a more viable way to pay fines, several Belgian newspapers write. Soon, penalties will be payable in installments, the Minister promises. The Ministry of Justice understands that people have payment issues now […]
September 09, 2022
Cycling is becoming more and more popular in Belgium. In all regions and among all age categories. And not only for recreational purposes. The use of the electric bike has increased by 56% since 2019. However, today, also traditional bikes score better than two years ago (from 41 to 45%). After an earlier survey in […]
September 09, 2022
The municipality of Uccle wants to ban the parking of shared e-scooters on its territory temporarily. So says the newspaper Le Soir. Mayor Boris Dilliès (MR) and his municipality seek the appropriate legal remedy. The mayor is tired of the delay in Brussels legislation. Mr. Dilliès has already demarcated several zones where the steps may […]
September 08, 2022
After being successful for some years already in Antwerp, Brussels, Mechelen, and at the airports of Zaventem, Charleroi, and Antwerp, Poppy Mobility is expanding its shared mobility services again. The D’Ieteren daughter now descends on Ghent’s territory. Poppy will start with the introduction of 80 free-floating vehicles, but other services will follow. Four and a […]
September 07, 2022
Passengers of Lufthansa Group’s airlines no longer must queue up at the check-in desk in the departure hall of Brussels Airport to have their suitcases labeled and taken to the aircraft. Instead, thanks to a new baggage drop-off system, they can now carry out this procedure themselves, the airline and the airport have announced. The […]
September 07, 2022
The number of company cars in Belgium is growing steadily. The total increase in Belgium compared to 2019 is 7%. The human resources provider, Securex, conducted a survey among 39 000 employees and analyzed the ongoing trends. Today, more than one quarter (27,3%) of Flemish employees have a company car, or 2,7% more than in […]
September 06, 2022
Federal Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) wants to abolish VAT on public transport tickets. This is what the newspaper L’Avenir reports. Gilkinet says that he put this measure on the table during the preparation of the Consultation Committee on energy prices last week. The measure would cost just under 100 million euros. “For the […]
September 06, 2022
Belgium has to focus more on transport via rail and waterways. That is one of the conclusions of the latest Mobility Report 2022 from the Mobility Council (Mobiliteitsraad, MORA). “The transport sector surely has put efforts into promoting inland shipping and rail transport but not enough to realize the modal shift,” says Tim Buyse, MORA’s […]
September 05, 2022
As of today, a subscription to one of the park-and-ride car parks in the outskirts of Brussels will be completely free for commuters who use transport in this way. The Brussels parking agency parking.brussels has announced this. The prices for bicycle parking in a Cycloparking will also go down significantly, namely by three quarters The […]
September 02, 2022
Since Thursday morning, motorbike and scooter users must pay to park in Paris. Two companies have been dispatched to track down offenders. Paris has been working for some time to reduce motorized traffic in favor of cyclists and pedestrians. The measure is difficult to digest for the motorcycle community. “We have to get out of […]
September 02, 2022
The federal mobility budget, introduced for employees as an alternative to their company cars, is not really persuasive. A survey by SD Worx shows that three years after its introduction, hardly 2% of Flemish employers offer their employees this sustainable mobility solution. In Brussels, the formula is slightly more popular (8%), while in Wallonia, less […]
September 01, 2022
German airline Lufthansa is missing out on the take-over of ITA, the successor to Alitalia. The Italian government withheld the bid of the American investment company Certares, together with airlines Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines. Exclusive negotiations for the take-over are now being started with the latter parties. Lufthansa has submitted a bid together […]
September 01, 2022
Poppy, the 100% Belgian shared mobility provider from D’Ieteren, will launch more than 1 500 shared e-scooters in Brussels. It’s the only app in Brussels to offer shared cars, vans, and e-scooters. In hardly four years, Poppy built up a fleet of 750 shared cars, and 2 000 shared e-scooters in cities like Antwerp, Brussels, […]
September 01, 2022
The city of Sint-Niklaas launches an original initiative: local authorities and an officially recognized driving school will organize free driving lessons for drivers who are afraid of entering underground parking lots. Hesitating motorists will get practical tips and tricks to overcome their underground parking anxiety. Parking facilities in Sint-Niklaas are not fully taken advantage of. […]
August 31, 2022
The number of traffic deaths on Belgian roads increased by 39% in the first half of the year. During the first six months, 231 people died in traffic, almost as many as before the corona pandemic. The figures come from the latest traffic safety barometer, based on data from the Federal Police and recently published […]
August 31, 2022
With one car from the Cambio shared car company, there are about 13 fewer private cars on the public roads. In Flanders, Cambio is thus replacing 13 700 private cars, and for the whole of Belgium, we are talking about no fewer than 27 230 cars. This is what the company itself says after a […]
August 31, 2022
The city of Ghent is upgrading the existing 100 smart information panels along the roads, indicating free parking places in the underground parking lots. The current panels will be replaced by some fifty new and strategically installed signs that will also offer additional information. The ‘old’ panels are outdated and still work via radio communication. […]
August 30, 2022
On Monday, a new two-kilometer stretch of bicycle highway was inaugurated between Diepenbeek and Bilzen. Just in time before the start of the new school year. The new bikeway (F70) connects Diepenbeek with Schoonbeek (Bilzen), directly linking to the station, school, and sports center Demerstrand. It runs through the greenery, parallel with rail track 34. […]
August 29, 2022
The German micro-mobility provider TIER Mobility has launched 250 shared e-bicycles in Liège. It is the first Walloon city to benefit from this service. TIER Mobility had already 200 e-scooters in Liège and also offers both services in Brussels. The news that TIER would also be introducing e-bikes in Liège was already announced in May […]
August 29, 2022
According to the German public railway company, Deutsche Bahn, the cheap monthly ticket they introduced for almost unlimited use of train transport was a huge success. Last June, July, and August, Deutsche Bahn alone sold 26 million of those monthly tickets. The tickets will be valid until the end of August. The tickets cost nine […]
August 26, 2022
Good visibility is essential for participating safely in traffic. We all know that. Independent research commissioned by glasses brand Pearle Opticians shows that approximately 20% of motorists and electric cyclists say they cannot see clearly when driving, even though they wear glasses or lenses. In addition, a quarter of motorists who wear glasses or lenses […]
August 26, 2022
The ‘try-out’ mobility package Mechelen launched last year in August is a success. The idea was simple but brilliant: anyone who moved to Malines could apply for a free mobility package containing a free monthly subscription for one month to public transport company De Lijn, combined with shared cars and e-bikes from Cambio and Blue […]
August 25, 2022
As it has always indicated, the Brussels region is not burying the introduction of the smart mileage charge. For several days, the Brussels-Capital Region has been looking for a few hundred persons to test the SmartMove mobile application. Brussels Fiscal Affairs developed this app to calculate and record the smart kilometer charge. This is what […]
August 24, 2022
Brussels Airlines wants to expand, with more planes and more staff. Vacancies have already been published and various growth scenarios are on the table. This was announced internally at the airline on Tuesday. “We are currently investigating various growth scenarios, which we will work out in more detail soon,” says spokesperson Maaike Andries. More clarity […]
August 23, 2022
The four traffic lanes in Brussels Belliard Street – which used to have five lanes – will remain permanently. This is what several French-speaking media outlets are reporting, based on a report by the Bruzz news site. However, the two ‘temporary’ cycle paths, which are enclosed by concrete blocks, will become permanent. Permission to do […]
August 22, 2022
The world could achieve an annual CO2 emission reduction of almost 700 million tons – the equivalent of Canada’s annual emissions – if everybody used a bicycle for daily trips, as the Dutch do. That is the remarkable conclusion of a Danish study published by the Communications Earth and Environment journal. In the Netherlands, cycling […]
August 22, 2022
Uber has announced that it is opening its app in Brussels to conventional or ‘traditional’ taxi drivers. That is what the newspaper La Dernière Heure writes. The Belgian director of the Californian company, Laurent Slits, says he is taking this step in response to the recent reform of the ‘taxi plan’ in the capital. But […]
August 19, 2022
Public transport company De Lijn has put one of its old depots in Lochristi at the disposal of NostalBus, a non-profit organization that collects, restores, and maintains historical buses. Twelve buses from the period between 1977 and 1991 will be used again for events. To celebrate the collection’s new accommodation, NostalBus will organize an open-house […]
August 18, 2022
Bike Republic, the bicycle chain of Colruyt Group, has taken over the first shop in Brussels, IMP Bike in Evere. The take-over fits in with the chain’s plan to become the reference in the Belgian (e-)bike market, with 50 to 60 shops in Belgium. Currently, Bike Republic is mainly active in Flanders. With the take-over, […]
August 17, 2022
The new ‘Good Move’ circulation plan in the Brussels Pentagon was launched on Tuesday. Stewards were posted in many places to guide motorists and other road users in the right direction. A welcome solution, because on the first day of the new plan, some places had an extra 30 minutes of traffic jams. Brussels Alderman […]
August 17, 2022
The Estonian micro-mobility platform, Bolt, celebrates its ninth birthday in Europe, and business is booming. The company with the green vehicle fleet has quadrupled its activities worldwide since the beginning of the corona pandemic. July 2022 was the most successful month ever. Bolt is operational in Belgium since last year, and meanwhile, one can find […]
August 16, 2022
In Brussels, near Place Saincteclette, a road user was recently arrested for driving 112 km/hour on his e-scooter. He reached this speed in the Anny Cordy tunnel, during the Roller Bike Parade, which is organised every Friday evening from 10 June to 23 September. So reports La Dernière Heure. The man filmed his own ‘heroic […]
August 16, 2022
The new traffic plan in the center of Brussels comes into force on Tuesday, 16 August, as announced several months ago. The project, adopted by the city council on 21 February, aims to turn the Pentagon into a ‘traffic-calmed zone’. As a result, less transit traffic should make the center more livable, accounting for no […]
August 12, 2022
In the coming years, Ryanair will no longer offer tickets at absolute bottom prices, such as 0,99 or 9,99 euros. This is what the top man Michael O’Leary of the Irish low-cost airline said in a radio interview with the BBC. Due to rising fuel and energy prices, accelerated by the war in Ukraine, Ryanair […]
August 12, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) wants to accelerate the rollout of the Basic Accessibility Plan. A complete reorganization of public transport and to align all levels of it. The concept was launched in 2015, and approved in 2019, but never realized. After several delays and adjustments to the timing, Minister Peeters now […]
August 10, 2022
According to American strategic research company BloombergNEV, passenger car sales will keep on growing in the next decade, from 1,2 billion today to 1,5 billion in 2039. They see the tipping point after a century of uninterrupted annual car sales growth, the so-called ‘car peak’, in 2036. And it’s going to be more and more […]
August 10, 2022
In Antwerp, the 2,5 millionth passenger on the Waterbus that travels down the Scheldt was honored on Tuesday. According to the Flemish government, which is funding the project, the Waterbus is very popular and has left behind the logical dip of the corona period. One in three passengers also takes a bicycle on board, which […]
August 10, 2022
According to figures from Minister for Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), more than 12 000 Belgians are driving around with an expired driver’s license. And this could lead to fines of 1 600 to a whopping 16 000 euros. Since July 2010, those who pass their driving test get a European driver’s license. The card looks […]
August 09, 2022
Natuurpunt, a volunteer organization protecting nature, calls citizens to register dead animals on the road via an app. This way, the organization wants to collect and analyze data about animals run over and killed in traffic. With more than five km of road per square meter, Belgium has the densest road network in Europe. But, […]
August 08, 2022
In 198 of the 300 Flemish municipalities and cities, there is at least one ‘bicycle street’. This is what Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), announced. The concept, by which local authorities give extra visibility and space to cyclists, was made legal ten years ago after it had been tested in 2011 in […]
August 08, 2022
In contrast to popular belief, the famous Autobahn wasn’t an idea from Adolf Hitler. Instead, the spiritual father of these freedom highways, where cars aren’t subjected to speed limits, was Konrad Adenauer. He opened the first stretch 90 years ago. While the Autobahn has always been a pillar for the German automotive industry, its ungoverned […]
