February 16, 2026
Drunk drivers will now be punished in the same way throughout Belgium. Anyone caught driving with a blood alcohol level of more than 0.8% will have their driver’s license suspended for 15 days on the spot. Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) has signed a circular letter to this effect, which takes effect immediately and […]
February 13, 2026
Waymo has begun operating its latest autonomous driving system on public roads without safety drivers. In the long contest to commercialise robotaxis, the company moves one step ahead of its rivals. With a cheaper hardware stack, a planned 50,000-vehicle supply deal with Hyundai, and ambitions to exceed one million paid rides per week, this subsidiary […]
February 12, 2026
German premium car manufacturer BMW is recalling some 575,000 cars worldwide to replace the starter motor, which can fail to function or, in rare cases, overheat and catch fire. Models of concern are found throughout the BMW portfolio: the 2-Series coupe, 3-, 4-, and 5-Series, the 6-Series Gran Turismo and the 7-Series, the X4, X5, […]
February 12, 2026
One in five Walloons is unaware of the minimum medical standards required to drive a vehicle. This is according to a survey by the Walloon Road Safety Agency (AWSR). The agency is using the results to launch a campaign on fitness to drive based on health, an essential but often overlooked aspect of road safety. […]
February 05, 2026
Women in Iran can now officially obtain a scooter or motorcycle license, the Iranian news agency Ilna announced on Wednesday. Until now, women were not prohibited from riding motorcycles. Car licenses have long been allowed for women in Iran, yet motorcycle licenses were a real taboo, remaining an officially male-only ‘privilege.’ They were already riding […]
February 04, 2026
From 2027 onward, the Chinese government will prohibit the registration of new cars with fully retractable door handles and electric unlocking systems, while existing models will be subject to a transitional arrangement. The Chinese ban is likely to have global repercussions. A potential ban has been discussed for months; now it has been decided. The […]
February 02, 2026
Despite Bluetooth being standard in almost every modern car, one out of eight Belgian drivers (13%) still make calls with their mobile phones in hand. This is evident from new research published by the Vias Traffic Institute, and based on a survey conducted in eleven European countries among a representative sample of the population. Even more […]
January 30, 2026
Traffic manslaughter is now a criminal offense in Belgium. The Chamber has given the green light for this. Previously, fatal accidents were usually classified as ‘unintentional homicide’. The new legislation, based on a bill drafted by Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), now makes vehicular homicide a separate crime with significantly increased penalties. The call for […]
January 30, 2026
In 2025, Belgium’s FPS Finance collected 646.4 million euros in fines. This represents an increase of 22.4 million euros compared to 2024. Traffic violations account for most of these cases. The increase is due to more efficient collection, as well as rate increases and the explosive growth of cameras along Belgian roads. Most of the money […]
January 29, 2026
In Wallonia, there are an average of 32 secondary accidents per year, resulting in 57 victims, including 3 fatalities. A secondary accident occurs when other road users collide with the scene of a crash or with people involved, such as drivers who get out of their cars, witnesses, or emergency responders. In a campaign, the […]
January 29, 2026
China has issued its first mandatory national standard for automatic emergency braking (AEB), making the system compulsory for all new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles from 2028 onwards. The move introduces a formal nationwide safety baseline in the world’s largest car market, but comes several years after comparable requirements were already enforced in Europe. […]
January 26, 2026
Of all those who had to retake their practical driving test last year (for example, after being revoked for driving under the influence), one in three candidates failed. The pass rate for the theoretical retest was even lower, GOCA Vlaanderen, the sector federation of vehicle inspection and driving licence examination centers, explains. In Belgium, drivers whose licence […]
January 22, 2026
Figures have already shown this, and the Belgian Vias traffic institute confirms it again: road safety is not gender-neutral. Men die on the road far more often than women. Women, meanwhile, face different — and often overlooked — dangers in daily mobility. In Belgium, nearly eight out of ten traffic fatalities are men. That ratio […]
January 21, 2026
2025 was, once again, the year of traffic jams. Never before had Flemish people spent more time stuck in traffic than last year. All vehicles together lost an average of almost 105,000 hours per day in traffic jams. This marks the first time the 100,000-hour mark has been surpassed. The figures come from the Flemish Traffic Center […]
January 20, 2026
Last year, Brussels Mobility counted approximately 12% more cyclists on cycle paths in the Brussels Capital Region. The increase is greatest on weekdays, at +13%, which drops to +7% at weekends. Meanwhile, cyclists and e-scooter riders are also anxiously awaiting the ban on bicycles and e-scooters in the Anspachlaan/Boulevard Anspach pedestrian zone, which is awaiting political […]
January 16, 2026
Almost one in ten children under 1.35 meters tall are not consistently secured in their car seats. Of the children who are secured, not all are in a child seat. In addition, one in five children keeps their coats on in their car seats in winter. This is according to a new study by the […]
January 06, 2026
During the first six months of last year, 5,028,562 traffic violations were recorded by the federal police in Belgium. This is an absolute record, as it is more than 436,000 more than in the same period two years ago. Compared to 2017, this is even double the number. Almost 4.2 million of the traffic violations […]
January 05, 2026
Belgians are increasingly using bicycles for their journeys, including commuting. This trend is confirmed by various mobility barometers and surveys in both Flanders and Wallonia. For the first time, more than half of Flemish people regularly cycle to work. Wallonia lags in this area, but even there, we observe that, for the first time, 6% […]
January 05, 2026
Starting the new year with fireworks? For many people, it is a tradition they would like to maintain. From next year, consumer fireworks will no longer be allowed in the Netherlands, and many Belgian municipalities and cities are also banning them. Every year, there are hundreds of victims, and the damage to houses and cars […]
December 30, 2025
From now on, anyone in France who exceeds the speed limit by 50 km/h or more will no longer receive a simple fine but will be immediately summoned to appear before the criminal court. Just as they would for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they could face a fine of up to […]
December 30, 2025
Almost 30% of drivers caught driving under the influence of drugs had taken more than one substance at the same time, the latest figures from Belgium’s National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) show. Drivers are increasingly testing for multiple drugs simultaneously. The party drug ketamine is also appearing more frequently in drunk driving. Last year, […]
December 23, 2025
A widespread power outage in San Francisco over the weekend halted dozens of driverless Waymo vehicles at busy intersections. The utility failure was turned into a stress test for autonomous ride services, re-opening the debate about how prepared the technology is for large-scale urban disruptions. Tesla’s Elon Musk was quick to respond to how unaffected […]
December 18, 2025
Almost 15% of vehicles on Belgian roads are driving around with unsafe tire combinations. Mobility federation Traxio reached this conclusion based on a survey of 1,000 drivers conducted last summer. The general condition of car tires, however, has improved, Traxio says. The Rolling Wheel study was carried out by the Federtyre (the Belgian federation of tire […]
December 17, 2025
It’s almost an early Christmas story: last Monday, an American woman gave birth to her child in a Waymo autonomous vehicle while en route to UC San Francisco Medical Center. “A woman in labor gave birth in the back seat of a Waymo robotaxi, the company confirmed in a blog post on Wednesday. Mother and […]
December 16, 2025
Last year, the Brussels-Capital Region spent 3.2 million euros on resurfacing its 800 kilometers of regional roads, well below the region’s own targets. According to De Standaard and BRUZZ, the structural resurfacing program requires an annual budget of approximately 10 million euros to maintain the road network. Every year, at least 10% of Brussels’ regional roads, […]
December 15, 2025
Geely has unveiled a vast new safety complex in eastern China, a flagship project shaped by the engineering competence of its Swedish subsidiary, Volvo. The Chinese car group wants to leverage its competitive edge and plans to make safety, alongside reliability, a sales argument in an increasingly crowded market. The new facility carries a price […]
December 09, 2025
In the Brussels municipality of Ukkel/Uccle, the new Carsoel Bridge over the Schaerbeek-Halle railway line has officially been put into service. The new bridge at Sint-Job station looks like a small square and is set to become a central intermodal hub, designed to promote sustainable transport. The revamped mobility project at the station, which welcomes […]
December 09, 2025
From January 1st, 2026, medical exemptions authorising the use of seat belts will cease to be valid in Belgium. Anyone who benefits from an old exemption, issued before March 1st, 2022, and whose state of health still justifies the impossibility of wearing a seatbelt, will have to submit a new application. An exemption is only […]
December 08, 2025
Fines for traffic violations will soon increase by 10%; court fines will even increase by 25%. This was confirmed by the office of Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden (CD&V). In concrete terms, this means that a minor first-degree offense, such as forgetting to signal, will now cost €63.80 instead of €58. A second-degree offense will increase […]
December 08, 2025
According to a recent study by the Belgian road safety institute Vias, there really is an “affective polarization” in traffic ─ negative feelings and hostility ─ between different groups of road users. People clearly rate their own group more positively than others, with particularly negative feelings toward e-scooters and cyclists. In an urban context, these tensions […]
November 28, 2025
In the province of Flemish Brabant, driving licences will now be revoked at a blood alcohol level of 0.35 mg/l, down from 0.50 mg/l. With this measure, the public prosecutor’s office of Leuven and Halle-Vilvoorde aims to further increase road safety in the province. The measure to lower the blood alcohol threshold comes on the […]
November 28, 2025
A survey commissioned by Belgian service chain Auto5 found that half of young drivers postpone essential car maintenance, even when it compromises safety or shortens the life of their vehicle. At first glance, the claim raises the question of whether it reveals a genuine societal trend or serves the interests of a company built on […]
November 21, 2025
Ghent ranks third in the Copenhagenize Index of the world’s most bicycle-friendly cities, after Utrecht and Copenhagen. The index is compiled every two years by the Danish consultancy Copenhagenize Desing Co., an agency specializing in bicycle strategy, urban planning, and mobility, and is considered an international benchmark. Antwerp ranks eighth. Brussels, the only other Belgian […]
November 21, 2025
We already knew that men have a reputation for driving faster, but now Coyote, a pioneer in driver assistance, confirms this with its own research. In September, Coyote researchers collected data on the driving behavior of men and women in Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. During this period, the average speed of women on highways in Flanders was […]
November 18, 2025
The city of Antwerp has drawn up its first specific ‘pedestrian program’. The program aims to increase the number of journeys made on foot. The program is an important part of the desired ‘modal shift’, in which journeys by private car are replaced as much as possible by more sustainable alternatives. Because “if we make […]
November 18, 2025
On Monday, the Flemish Road Safety Foundation (Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde, VSV) and the federal road police launched a campaign in Gentbrugge to increase seat belt use among truck drivers. Not an unnecessary campaign, it turns out, because one in nine truck drivers seldom buckles up. The campaign’s slogan in Dutch is “Een echte draagt ‘m” […]
November 18, 2025
Six out of ten people involved in a traffic accident experience symptoms of depression afterwards. In 4 out of 10 cases, these symptoms even persist 10 years later. The Flemish Traffic Safety Institute Vias reached this conclusion after surveying around fifty traffic victims and the same number of family members. This was in the context […]
November 18, 2025
The Walloon Road Safety Council (CSWSR) has presented its action plan to reduce the number of road deaths in Wallonia. Among the most important proposals in the seven-point plan is a speed reduction on regional roads from 90 to 70 km/h, as in Flanders. Another important pillar: better compliance with speed limits, supported by a […]
November 17, 2025
The Vilvoorde police court has annulled the fine imposed on mobility expert Johan De Mol (Ghent University) for speeding because a private company co-finances the speed camera. The ruling could undermine the entire average speed check system, especially in Flanders. Flemish Minister of Mobility Annick De Ridder (N-VA) intends to study the ruling thoroughly and, […]
November 13, 2025
EVs are increasingly showing supercar performance, but this might hit a ceiling soon. China is preparing to introduce a sweeping new rule that would cap how quickly cars can accelerate when started, for instance. A new draft issued by the Ministry of Public Security proposes that all passenger vehicles be, by default, unable to accelerate […]
November 12, 2025
The Flemish national broadcasting company VRT is launching a remarkable traffic campaign to remind Flemish drivers that there are no excuses when it comes to driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. One of the key figures in the campaign is… television producer Tom Waes, who was involved in a traffic accident one year ago, […]
November 06, 2025
The first Brussels ANPR cameras, initially intended for the low-emission zone (LEZ) and average speed checks, have been connected to the national police network. This involves 450 cameras. The integration allows all six Brussels police zones to access live data and footage in real time. Connecting the cameras to the brand-new national police platform ANPR@GPI […]
October 30, 2025
The mandatory technical inspection for second-hand motorcycles in Flanders will be abolished in mid-2026, barely three years after its introduction. Pretty unpopular among bike riders, it resulted in 21,000 fewer second-hand motorcycles sold in 2024. Motorcycles will no longer have to be inspected when sold or after an accident, and no periodic inspection will replace […]
October 29, 2025
Anyone wishing to visit the Citadel and the rock above the Walloon city of Dinant will no longer be able to do so by cable car. A technical report has identified wear and tear and aging, which means the cable car will have to be temporarily shut down, possibly for 1.5 to 2 years, to […]
October 28, 2025
In the past ten years, the number of tram accidents involving pedestrians in the Brussels-Capital Region has halved. While the MIVB/STIB recorded between 40 and 50 such accidents per year in 2015, the figure for 2024 is 23 collisions. “A promising development,” says the public transport company, “but every accident has potentially serious consequences and […]
October 27, 2025
Last weekend, traffic on the Antwerp ring road was diverted via the new bypass, a temporary highway alongside the current ring road that will replace it during the Oosterweel connection works. According to client Lantis, the transition was successful, but significant disruption is expected. The so-called ‘bypass’ between the Afas Dome (formerly called ‘Sportpaleis’) in Deurne and the […]
October 24, 2025
On Sunday, we will switch back to winter time. Clocks will be turned back one hour, extending the night by one hour and giving us an extra hour of sleep. Unfortunately, it also means that it will get dark earlier in the evening, and that there will be more pedestrian accidents after the time switch. Vias […]
October 22, 2025
The European Parliament has approved two texts that pave the way for digital driving licenses on smartphones by the end of 2030. They do not replace the physical driver’s license, but both will be valid. In the future, it will also be possible to begin training to become a truck driver at the age of 17. […]
October 21, 2025
During the national campaign against distracted driving on October 7 and 8, the Belgian police issued a total of 3,226 fines and immediate penalties. No fewer than 2,877 drivers were fined for using a cell phone while driving, and 1,097 driving licences were immediately revoked. “The number of violations remains very high,” says the federal […]
October 21, 2025
The city of Prague has decided to ban shared/rental e-scooters on its territory from January 2026. From that date, shared e-scooter providers will not be allowed to operate unless they have specific contracts. Prague isn’t banning the concept of shared e-scooters entirely; it’s banning unregulated operations. These contracts will specify where vehicles can be parked, […]
October 20, 2025
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 […]
October 17, 2025
Eventually, from mid-November, Flemish public transport company De Lijn would be operating self-driving shuttle minibuses to transport passengers between Leuven station and Heverlee. A Belgian first: autonomous vehicles driving in busy city traffic at normal speeds of up to 40 km/h. But more time is needed to fine-tune and becoming fully operational is now postponed […]
October 16, 2025
Alphabet-Google’s daughter company, Waymo, plans to introduce its robotaxi operations in London next year. This is in response to plans by the British government to allow commercial pilot projects with autonomous vehicles from 2026. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “delighted” by the announcement. For Waymo, this will be its second international expansion, after […]
October 06, 2025
The socialist transport workers union BTB-ABVV has once again published a black book on Belgian motorway parking areas. “Unsafe, inadequate, and uncomfortable” is the conclusion of the 11th review, which examined more than 50 parking areas in Belgium and abroad. “It’s high time that policymakers, employers, and clients take responsibility,” says Tom Peeters, deputy federal […]
October 03, 2025
Much has been written about the possible introduction of compulsory bicycle helmets, but everyone agrees that wearing one protects you better against head injuries in the event of a fall. London-based start-up RLS has recently developed an innovative technology for bicycle helmets that significantly reduces the risk of concussions and traumatic brain injuries in the […]
October 02, 2025
Almost half of incidents involving pedestrians occur when they are on the sidewalk, a bike path, or in a pedestrian zone, and not when they are hit while crossing the street, as is commonly expected. This is according to a new study by the Traffic Safety Institute Vias. Also noteworthy: 1 in 5 accidents or […]
September 24, 2025
A pilot project has been launched in Antwerp, in which public transport company De Lijn will use AI driver assistance systems on trams to help prevent accidents in the future. The system, developed by the Ghent technology company Otiv, was presented on Tuesday, September 23rd, in Antwerp, in the presence of Minister of Mobility Annick […]
September 19, 2025
The new tram in Liège has been in service since the end of April and is proving to be a resounding success. Although no reliable public sources are immediately available, the newspaper Le Soir reports 100,000 users per week, which would amount to more than 2 million passengers to date. The only downside is that […]
September 17, 2025
China is poised to ban retractable car door handles by 2027, following a series of fatal crashes that have exposed the dangers of a feature once hailed as a marker of futuristic design. Flush-mounted handles, popularized by Tesla and copied by numerous electric vehicle makers, are designed to sit flat against the car body until […]
September 11, 2025
While the number of occupational accidents has decreased over the past decade, accidents on the way to and from work have increased. In Belgium, more than 10,000 accidents involving ‘soft mobility’ occurred last year on the way to, from, or for work, according to an extensive study by the insurance federation Assuralia. In five years, the […]
