Over 5,500 people took part in a citizens’ consultation on road safety for Belgium between July and October, according to Belga News Agency.
The survey focused on three central themes: cohabitation on the road, risk behaviour (along with controls and sanctions), and support and training.
Some of the proposals to emerge from the initiative include a periodic refreshing of knowledge about the highway code, an increase in targeted controls with the use of technological tools, changes to the highway code to clarify the rules for scooters and other vehicles, more protection for vulnerable users and better control of inappropriate behaviour, including for active users.
According to Vias, experts are currently working on proposals to create a federal plan for road safety that would lead to zero deaths on the road.
In 2019, 644 people died in road accidents in Belgium, a figure well above the target of 420 deaths by 2020.
The preliminary results of the citizens’ consultation were taken into account for the organisation of multiple citizens' panels which took place in September in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Leuven, Namur and Liège.
The conclusions of the survey will be used to formulate new recommendations in terms of road safety.
The consultation was part of the General Assembly on Road Safety, organised by the Vias Road Safety Institute, Federal Minister for Mobility Georges Gilkinet and the FPS Mobility and Transport.
The États Généraux de la Sécurité Routière, which will be held on 23 November, was created in 2001 at the request of the Parents d'Enfants Victimes de la Route (PEVR) to provoke debate on road safety issues and to determine objectives.
