Cycling in Brussels has increased by 18 percent according to the results of bold new mobility plan

Six months ago, the European city of Brussels implemented a bold traffic plan, dubbed the Good Move Plan. It didn’t quite ban motor vehicles from the city center outright, but certainly gave priority to public transit and human-powered transportation and shuffled motor vehicles to main roads and closed local streets. Now, a new report indicates that the plan has been an incredible success.

The new traffic plan in the city’s center has triggered a 19% drop in traffic while increasing cycling by an average of 18%.

“It is too early to draw definitive conclusions, but the trend we are seeing is in line with our expectations. The modal shift seems to be progressing little by little. We find that visitors and commuters are increasingly moving by other means and that Brussels continues to attract national and foreign visitors,” explains Bart Dhondt (pictured above from his Instagram), Alderman for Mobility of the City of Brussels, in a release translated from French. “For example, we were able to accommodate 3.6 million visitors during the last edition of Plaisirs d’Hiver: we were thus able to welcome more visitors from outside Brussels while experiencing far fewer problems,”

When the plan was first introduced it had the goal of making the city center a better place to live for, you know, the people who reside there in addition to helping with air pollution, noise levels, and traffic.

At the time, Dhondt famously went on social media asking Brussels residents to “sniff the clean air.”

Cyclists in the city center of Brussels

Not surprisingly, there was plenty of vigorous protesting over the plan, especially from local store owners who feared the worst.

It’s a move that has been repeated in many European cities as of late, including the French capital of Paris. A move that puts people, their health, and the health of our environment, ahead of the convenience of those traveling by car. Although, in the case of Brussels, it seems to have eased traffic as well as more people choose different transportation modes that make it easiest to get into the city center. Namely, a bicycle.

Thanks to the traffic plan, Brussels has been able to free up public space to make local neighborhoods more livable and safer including adding more greenery and making it easier for pedestrians, cyclists, and people with reduced mobility to move around the city center.

The release from the city of Brussels uses the examples of Rue Sainte-Catherine and Boulevard Adolphe Max, which are undergoing a complete refurbishment.

“Mobility is therefore a lever for a more qualitative public space, the streets where the cars passed at full speed become lively meeting places,” added Dhondt. “And it works: the City of Brussels welcomes more and more inhabitants, as well as small and large companies.”