Acerta: ‘Bicycle use for commuting has grown 35% in five years’

According to human resources service provider Acerta’s latest mobility barometer, bicycles are gaining popularity among Belgian commuters. Today, two-wheelers account for 41.2 percent of commutes, compared to 30.5 percent five years ago.

About 15 percent of Belgian employees complete their entire commute by bike. This share (17.3 percent) is much higher among Flemish employees than among Walloon employees (2.2 percent). Almost a quarter of employees (24.3 percent) combine bike and car.

Antwerp takes the lead

Between 2023 and 2024, the share of bicycles in commuting trips has grown by 5.4 percent. In five years, the share of bicycles has increased by just under 35 percent.

Nowhere in Belgium is the bicycle used as much to travel between home and work as in the province of Antwerp. 56.1 percent of Antwerp employees rely on cycling to commute to work. That is a good quarter more than five years ago. Car use, therefore, has fallen by 1.5 percent.

Still 78% of commuters prefer the car

The number of bicycle commuters in Limburg has increased much faster in the past five years than elsewhere in Flanders. Limburg employees cycle 65 percent more between home and work than in 2019. But here, too, the car remains the king of commuting.

The car is used for 78 percent of commuting trips. More than half of Belgian employees (52.3 percent) always use the car to commute. Public transport is less popular than private means of transport such as cars and bicycles. For instance, the share of public transport for commuting is 8 percent.

Public transport is not very popular

In Limburg, only 4.7 percent of employees commute by bus or train (at least partly). That is a 14 percent decrease compared to five years earlier. “Public transport only wins where supply is large, and cars are discouraged, such as in Brussels,” explains Charlotte Thijs, mobility expert at Acerta.