It’s a long long battle. I’m guessing you never visited Brussels? It’s hard to compare a capital of a small country, and de facto of the EU, with a mid sized city in a huge country.
The survey you’re reading about was done with the residents of Brussels. Way more than many other cities: Brussels is a real commuter city. Hundreds of thousands of people commute into the city. We’re talking 350.000 or more. Few people living in Brussels commute out of it.
From those commuting people, 17 % cycle, 15 % use public transport (rush hour trains are full AF), about 65 % uses the car.
Reason? Cars are used in Belgium as a replacement (addition) for paying employees (it is called “salariswagen”) and they often get a “free tanking” card on top and it is completely legal (even expected/encouraged) that these cars are used by the employee both for coming to work and for wherever they wanna go privately on holidays or weekends. It is very gently taxed, while paying employees actual money in Belgium is taxed among the heaviest in the world. There are estimates of there being 700.000 cars like this (it’s estimate because it intertwines with actual “company cars”: people who need the company car for their actual job and not just to drive to work). A lot of those commute to Brussels everyday, from Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, … and from the hundreds of small cities towns in between and around.
The roads around Brussels (and Antwerp, and Ghent, and …) are really really jammed. On an average day, there are 160 km of traffic jam in rush hour. When there is shitty weather (cyclists turn to cars and public transport), it can go up to 400 - 500km all jammed up. For reference: if you measure very broadly, the country is east-west only 280km and north-south only 220km (while in reality one should ignore the south for this, it is very sparsely populated).
Whatever you do, do not take the way public transport is run in Belgium/Brussels as a prime example. It might be better than your average mid sized US city, but for European standards: public transport in Belgium is very insufficient, unreliable, too expensive and by far not the most popular mode of transport (and for good reasons). Truth be told: among this situation, the Brussels company (MIVB-STIB) is the best public transport company in Belgium, but compared to public transport in big cities in the Netherlands, Germany, … it still sucks pretty bad.
Thank you for the detailed info about Belgium and Brussels.
I have been to Brussels for a few days. The transit in the core was great (says the American whose city is a wreck for transit). We used the metro and trains. We headed out by hopping the train to London.
It sounds like the wider situation outside of Brussels and the policies regarding car use need some serious work. If the taxes make it beneficial to drive, people will. A budget is a statement of an organizations values. The same goes for how taxes are balanced in a nation.
Hopefully the leadership in Belgium can find a way to roll back those highways. Removing freeways through cities is a fast way to improve the city as a place for people to live.
Okay cool. Within Brussels it’s sorta fine indeed, I guess I’m biased by the commuter view ;) Within the city it’s definitely getting better the last few years.
The main policy issue is for sure the cars for pay… Some politicians wanted to abolish it since years, but it only grows year after year. Recently they made it only tax-friendly for electric cars, saying the system must stay because it helps transition to electric cars faster (I think that transition would happen very fast anyhow and I think transitioning to (e-)bicycles is better). Understandably, people who currently have such a “free” car from work don’t want to give it up (and that’s a lot of voters), as they also use it to go on holiday with the family and such.
A main infrastructure issue is the tunnel (you probably travelled in it) running north to south. So many different trains in Belgium get squozen in the same little piece Brussels North - Central - Brussels South, the tunnel is very saturated, and messy with highspeed, intercity, local and S trains all going there. It just needs 1 little incident and plenty of trains all over the country get delayed.
It’s a long long battle. I’m guessing you never visited Brussels? It’s hard to compare a capital of a small country, and de facto of the EU, with a mid sized city in a huge country.
The survey you’re reading about was done with the residents of Brussels. Way more than many other cities: Brussels is a real commuter city. Hundreds of thousands of people commute into the city. We’re talking 350.000 or more. Few people living in Brussels commute out of it.
From those commuting people, 17 % cycle, 15 % use public transport (rush hour trains are full AF), about 65 % uses the car.
Reason? Cars are used in Belgium as a replacement (addition) for paying employees (it is called “salariswagen”) and they often get a “free tanking” card on top and it is completely legal (even expected/encouraged) that these cars are used by the employee both for coming to work and for wherever they wanna go privately on holidays or weekends. It is very gently taxed, while paying employees actual money in Belgium is taxed among the heaviest in the world. There are estimates of there being 700.000 cars like this (it’s estimate because it intertwines with actual “company cars”: people who need the company car for their actual job and not just to drive to work). A lot of those commute to Brussels everyday, from Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, … and from the hundreds of small cities towns in between and around.
The roads around Brussels (and Antwerp, and Ghent, and …) are really really jammed. On an average day, there are 160 km of traffic jam in rush hour. When there is shitty weather (cyclists turn to cars and public transport), it can go up to 400 - 500km all jammed up. For reference: if you measure very broadly, the country is east-west only 280km and north-south only 220km (while in reality one should ignore the south for this, it is very sparsely populated).
Whatever you do, do not take the way public transport is run in Belgium/Brussels as a prime example. It might be better than your average mid sized US city, but for European standards: public transport in Belgium is very insufficient, unreliable, too expensive and by far not the most popular mode of transport (and for good reasons). Truth be told: among this situation, the Brussels company (MIVB-STIB) is the best public transport company in Belgium, but compared to public transport in big cities in the Netherlands, Germany, … it still sucks pretty bad.
Thank you for the detailed info about Belgium and Brussels.
I have been to Brussels for a few days. The transit in the core was great (says the American whose city is a wreck for transit). We used the metro and trains. We headed out by hopping the train to London.
It sounds like the wider situation outside of Brussels and the policies regarding car use need some serious work. If the taxes make it beneficial to drive, people will. A budget is a statement of an organizations values. The same goes for how taxes are balanced in a nation.
Hopefully the leadership in Belgium can find a way to roll back those highways. Removing freeways through cities is a fast way to improve the city as a place for people to live.
Okay cool. Within Brussels it’s sorta fine indeed, I guess I’m biased by the commuter view ;) Within the city it’s definitely getting better the last few years.
The main policy issue is for sure the cars for pay… Some politicians wanted to abolish it since years, but it only grows year after year. Recently they made it only tax-friendly for electric cars, saying the system must stay because it helps transition to electric cars faster (I think that transition would happen very fast anyhow and I think transitioning to (e-)bicycles is better). Understandably, people who currently have such a “free” car from work don’t want to give it up (and that’s a lot of voters), as they also use it to go on holiday with the family and such.
A main infrastructure issue is the tunnel (you probably travelled in it) running north to south. So many different trains in Belgium get squozen in the same little piece Brussels North - Central - Brussels South, the tunnel is very saturated, and messy with highspeed, intercity, local and S trains all going there. It just needs 1 little incident and plenty of trains all over the country get delayed.