Streets and squares to suit everyone!
Young and old should be able to move safely. Preferably on foot, by bike or public transport.
Tram 8 to Roodebeeck in 2017, tram 9 in Jette: two great tram projects delivered by Vooruit.brussels. Pascal Smet also launched the projects for Tram 10 to Neder-over-Heembeek and tram 15 to Tour & Taxis. Because we believe in good and comfortable public transport, for the many, not the few. And we can do even more to make sure you get everywhere easily.
For 20 years now, Vooruit.brussels has been the driving force behind the transformation of Brussels into a city made for people. A city where the public space is designed to be pleasant, where you can feel safe and get around easily. No dogmatic thinking for Vooruit.brussels, but pragmatic work on safety, quality, and comfort for all active road users.
Who remembers when Place de la Bourse and the central avenues were a four-lane motorway? Who still recalls that Place Flagey, Place du Miroir, Place Fernand Cocq, or the Parvis were sombre open-air car parks not so long ago? Or that there were not wide cycle paths but parallel roads along the small ring road? Not to mention the lack of quality in the Brussels public transport...
In the inner city, Anaïs Maes redesigned the streets at Place Sainte-Catherine and Brucity, as well as Boulevard Adolphe Max, with much more space for pedestrians, greenery, and terraces. Willem Stevens extended the pedestrian zone of the Parvis in Saint-Gilles by redeveloping Marie Janson Square and better connecting it with the renovated Pieter Paulus Park.
The transformation of Brussels from a city tailored to cars to a city tailored to people is underway, but we are in danger of grinding to a halt. After the visionary Good Move plan developed by Pascal Smet in 2018, Vooruit.brussels wants to step up the pace again, because we are far from being there yet. For Vooruit.brussels, the car remains welcome in the city because everyone needs a car from time to time. But let's also be honest: we still need to give a lot more space to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. Especially when you know that more than 50% of Brussels households do not own a car.
Public space in Brussels is too often a mess. Ans Persoons has drawn up a new manual for the layout of all streets in Brussels, with more greenery, wider pavements and aligned to Good Move, and with customised layouts for school environments, shopping streets, etc.
Safe and separate cycle lanes, not just some paint!
The number of Brussels cyclists continues to increase. To a very large extent, this is due to the many separate cycle paths Pascal Smet had constructed. This allows young and old to cycle safely in more and more places in Brussels. Just think of the cycle paths on the inner ring road, Avenue Roosevelt, Avenue General Jacques, Chaussée de Vilvorde, Avenue Van Praet and many other places.
All these successful cycle paths have one thing in common: they are physically separated from car traffic. With a stretch of plants and trees where possible and otherwise at least with embankments. This takes longer but is much more sustainable. Where possible, we want separate cycle lanes so that even a grandmother with her grandchild feels safe on a bike.
Today, we see that the more recent cycle paths are often sloppily laid with paint on the roadway. For Vooruit.brussels, this is not enough. We want cycling infrastructure on which even novice cyclists can feel safe.
In the short term, Vooruit.brussels wants to complete the network of safe cycle paths by building wide separate cycle paths on major traffic axes. And we don't just promise that. We already did!
Those who cycle also want to be able to park their bikes safely. Bike boxes and bike stands are often full. Vooruit.brussels is committed to providing bicycle parking at least every 150m.
Quiet residential areas and a School Street for every primary school!
Vooruit.brussels wants to design our residential areas to suit the residents and especially our youngest residents. We do this by making a large part of neighbourhood roads one-way. wijkwegen eenrichting te maken.
This way, all neighbourhoods will remain easily accessible to everyone on foot, by bike, by public transport and by car. At the same time, sufficient parking spaces for bicycles and cars of residents can be provided. Space will be freed up to plant many more trees, for public transport, to provide extra benches, playgrounds, and dog parks and to place underground containers.
We can keep unnecessary cut-through traffic out of residential areas by cleverly directing cars to major axes.
We make school zones primarily pedestrian zones or residential areas so that our children and their parents can go to school with peace of mind. Every primary school deserves a School Street.
STIB: best public transport
The former mayor of Bogota once said: 'A developed country is not a place where the poor own cars. It is a place where the rich use public transport.' When we look at SNCB, De Lijn or TEC in the rest of our country, we find that Brussels already has very good public transport. But for Vooruit.brussels, standing still means going backwards. In Brussels, we want not only the best public transport in Belgium, but in the world. We willen in Brussel niet enkel het beste openbaar vervoer van België, maar van de wereld.
The service, punctuality and cleanliness could be much better. That is why we are increasing the frequency of some strategic lines, including at night.
With tram lines 8, 9 and 10, Vooruit.brussels created the three most recent tram lines in Brussels and will continue this success formula. Tram 15, which will connect the North Station with Tour & Taxis, is finally coming. We are also pushing ahead with the extension of tram 82 to the Bemptsite, the airport tram and the express tram to Willebroek.
We continue to renew STIB vehicles and make them greener. And finally, Vooruit.brussels is paying extra attention to the cleanliness of the vehicles and stations, because today they often look very dirty.
Sharing = caring. You no longer need to own a bike or car to use one
Vooruit.brussels introduced shared mobility in the Brussels Region. One of the many advantages of living in Brussels is that you no longer need to have your own car or bike to use one. It is now time to move up a gear here as well.
We provide more reserved parking spaces for shared cars and accelerate the roll-out of the regional electric charging station network for shared cars. We also provide kiss-and-ride short-term parking zones and drop-off zones for courier services and for unloading groceries to avoid double parking and congestion. We will replace the Villo! system with cheap, more comfortable, electric shared bicycles.
Brussels is on its way to becoming a city on a human scale, but for Vooruit.brussels it could all go a bit faster again. Standing still means going backwards and in our view everyone should, literally, go Forward in Brussels, through more real cycle paths, through comfortable and reliable public transport and an inviting public space.