The Government of Brussels on Thursday approved “Good Move”, a regional plan that lays out the main directions of a drive to beef up mobility while respecting the environment and improving safety for the next 10 years in the Belgian capital. It also approved a new management contract linking the capital region and the STIB, the utility that runs its public car, bus and subway service.
The Good Move plan also includes a vision at the metropolitan level, according to Brussels Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort and Ministers of Mobility, Pascal Smet, and Finance, Guy Vanhengel.
The public will be able to examine the plan from 15 June to 15 October, while the Government that takes over after elections in May will have the task of finetuning it.
Good Move aims at a 24% reduction in car use, a fourfold increase in bicycle use and a significant rise in the amount of public transport available to commuters. It provides for the transformation of thoroughfares into urban boulevards (A-12, E-40 and the roads to Charlequint, Meiser, Lambermont, Louise and Sainctelette) and for specialisation among roads, making a distinction between thoroughfares and connecting roads, roadways and neighbourhood streets.
Fifty low-speed neighbourhoods, in which speeds will be limited to 30 kilometres per hour, are to be created, the idea being to rid them of transit traffic.
The subway system is to be extended northward, a move considered critical in the plan, which further includes studying a southward extension of the subway via Albert and a westward one in the direction of Berchem or Grand-Bigard.
The plan further includes extending Line 9 towards the Heysel, running a new tram line towards Neder-over-Heembeek and establishing a connection to Laeken via Tour & Taxi.
Extending the network of cycle paths is also on the cards. Such paths would be created along railway lines, and improvements would be made at dangerous crossings such as Sainctelette, De Trooz, Vandervelde, Meiser, and the crossroads of the Inner Beltway.
The Brussels Times
