Nearly half of Belgians never use public transportation. This is according to a study on public transportation in Europe conducted by the German research institute Öko and commissioned by Greenpeace.
Long travel times deter Belgians, and another weakness of public transportation is the significant disparity in availability between urban and rural areas.
Belgians are not alone in this: the study shows that up to 56% of European countries report being effectively “cut off” from public transportation because it is not available in their region.
Travel times far too long
Belgium ranks in the middle of the pack in Europe when it comes to public transportation use. More than 50% of the Belgian population uses public transportation less than once a month or never – a trend that the report considers concerning for nearly all European countries.
Belgian who regularly (at least once a week) take the train, metro, tram, or bus, on the other hand, represent a quarter of the total population.
But the main reason Belgian public transportation is used so little is the long travel times, which are remarkable for a country so compact. Belgium scores strikingly poorly in this regard: 8% of respondents therefore avoid it entirely. This puts Belgium nearly twice the EU average, landing it in second-to-last place. Only Slovenia (9%) performs even worse; Cyprus follows in third place (7%).
Travel times are particularly long for small towns and rural areas – 11% of Belgium’s working population has a commute of more than 60 minutes (one way) – a major culprit: about three times more people than the EU average do not use public transportation as a result (10,6% and 8,7% in Belgium versus 3.5% and 2,8% in the EU).
The report also explicitly states that Belgium, along with Slovenia and Denmark, is one of the countries with the highest proportion of people citing excessive travel time as a reason for not using public transportation, across both urban and rural areas.
No public transportation available
Public transportation is also sometimes simply nonexistent or runs too infrequently. Once again, this is certainly a problem in rural areas: the disparity in public transportation availability between urban and rural areas in Belgium is more than tenfold.
As a result, 35% of residents in rural municipalities drop out immediately (29,3% in the EU). Most of these municipalities are in Wallonia, but Flanders also has about 50. These include, for example, Aalter, Oudsbergen, and Hoogstraten.
Accessibility is also an issue
Another concern is accessibility. Belgium doesn’t fare very well in this area either, but the gap with the European average is smaller (4,6% of people give up in Belgium versus 3,4% in the EU), although Belgium ranks among the top 5 in Europe in this regard, alongside Italy, Germany, and France. People age 65 and older, in particular, struggle with physical access to public transportation (11,8% in Belgium versus 7,1% in the EU).
The only indicator in the report where Belgium performs well is affordability. For only 1,7% of Belgians, this is a dealbreaker. In the EU, the average is 2.1%. That figure is also much better than in neighboring countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, with results of 4,4% and 5,5%, respectively.
Harsh reality
Finally, a noteworthy observation regarding Europe: All analyzed European countries perform below the European average on at least one of the 11 transport poverty indicators, with Germany, France, and Bulgaria exhibiting the most significant gaps. Czechia, Serbia, and Slovakia are the countries with the best results for the indicators analyzed.
The report, titled “Access Denied: Transport Poverty in Europe”, states that in approximately 90% of European countries, more than half of the population does not use public transportation on a regular basis. Up to 56% of the population in European countries report being effectively “cut off” from public transportation because it is simply not available in their region.
This lack of alternatives forces 19% of the population to purchase a car, which increases household costs and CO2 emissions.
The report also highlights a demographic divide: women and older adults are disproportionately affected by safety concerns and issues with physical accessibility, making public transportation often an unfeasible option.
Recommendations
Yuri Thijs, spokesperson for Greenpeace Belgium, is therefore calling for action: “Mobility is not a luxury; it is fundamental to a dignified life; We call on governments to prioritize an inclusive public transportation system: affordable, accessible, safe, and reliable.”
The authors of the research report also offer recommendations to make public transportation more attractive. Among other things, they advocate for social transit passes as a key policy measure, particularly for vulnerable groups; incorporating public transit into urban planning so that new residential areas are preferably equipped with good connections from the outset; and making public transit infrastructure barrier-free for people with limited mobility, with elevators, ramps, and raised walkways.
Other proposals include improving safety through better lighting at stops, surveillance cameras, and emergency alarm buttons, as well as increased staff presence, particularly on high-risk routes and during late-night shifts.
As targeted solutions for vulnerable groups, they advocate for specific attention to the physical accessibility and safety of people aged 65 and older, as they are disproportionately affected in all countries, and safety measures such as subsidized night taxis for women as a short-term solution, combined with structural integration of a gender perspective into urban mobility plans – following the example of Barcelona.
