Some 1,225 Bruxell’air allowances were awarded to residents of Belgium’s capital for giving up their cars last year, La Capitale reported on Saturday, based on figures relayed by parliamentarian Marc Loewenstein ((DéFI).
The Brussels Region earmarks 750,000 euros each year to cover the cost of weaning people away from private cars.
The number of allowances had been decreasing since 2010 – from 1,429 in 2010, to 1087 in 2011, then 879 in 2012 and 457 in 2017. However, it went up in 2018 – to 860 – then to 1,225 last year, and the Brussels Region’s Mobility Department has already announced 400 allowances for the first quarter of 2020.
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Residents who give up their license plates can receive a one-year subscription to public transport along with a one-year subscription to Cambio, or an allowance of up to 505 euros to buy a bicycle plus the one-year subscription to the car-sharing scheme.
The allowance is doubled if the resident also has his or her car destroyed.
“The system of allowances will be reviewed for 2021,” Mobility Minister Elke Van den Brandt said. “It will also include an allowance in favour of a needier public, for whom the cost of a bicycle is prohibitive.”
The Brussels Times
