As in Flanders and Brussels, Wallonia now also has a network of counting points to monitor the number of cyclists. On the website cyclable.wallonie.be, the 159 counting points for both cyclists and pedestrians can be consulted.

With this initiative, the region aims to refine its cycling policy, says Walloon Mobility Minister François Desquesnes (Les Engagés). “We have a lot of data on cars or trucks, but much less on cyclists and pedestrians.”

Walloon Bicycle Plan 2030

The figures, which are thus based on counting points equipped with a pneumatic counting tube or an infrared signal, will also serve as a basis for the Walloon Bicycle Plan 2030, which is currently being evaluated and for which the first results will be communicated shortly.

The goal of that new plan is to accelerate the development of daily cycling in Wallonia.

Liège most popular

According to the minister, the modal share of cycling, in other words, the percentage of journeys made by bicycle, currently stands at 4.1% in Wallonia. By comparison, in Flanders, about 18% of journeys are made by bicycle, while in Brussels, the figure is around 9%.

Just under half of the counting points were installed last fall. Initial analyses show, not surprisingly, that cycling is primarily more common in cities than in the (steeper) countryside. The busiest place is the Quai Mativa in Liège, with just over 120,000 cyclists since the beginning of the year.

In the other provinces, the counters with the most passages are on the cyclo route in Terhulpen (Walloon Brabant); along the canal in Ath (Hainaut); on the RaVel in Bastogne (Luxembourg), and Avenue de la Plante in Namur.

A total of a dozen more counters should still be installed in smaller towns, as well as in urban and peri-urban areas, to gain a better fine-grained view of daily bicycle use in Wallonia.