> “One could conclude that all this congestion is due to the success of our economy, rather than the failure of mobility policies,” says Kris Peeters, author of several books on the subject.
Is this the politician or another Kris Peeters (because he was minister of economy + “openbare werken” and this feels like a brag and deflection)? Cuz it’s very much both imo. At least he says that building more roads is not the solution.
> Perhaps Belgians just like their traffic jams.
No, it’s just that complaining and not paying is more preferable than paying.
Pretty spot on analysis on every single point.
“The OECD blames this on a rigid housing market, caused by the high transaction costs of buying a house. There’s also a strong anti-urban mentality. For many Belgians, owning a detached house with some green space in the neighbourhood where they grew up is worth all those hours on the road.”
People love their houses along a nationale lintbebouwing. First complaint after moving there. “There’s nowhere we can go for a walk without taking the car”.
The problem is the suburban lifestyle. Our cities should normally be much larger with better public transport and the countryside more empty.
Take Portugal, a country with a similar population. 40 to 50% of people live around Lisbon and Porto. Of course many live in appartment buildings.
I think our countryside has always been rather dense. It´s also not mountaineous, thus fit for living easily. Still it´s too dense now, since it´s not well accessible.
Allow me to add a 6th reason:
Retard politicians (and electorate) refusing to make a change, despite the blatantly obvious need to do so.
I’m glad I bought a home close to my job. Only a 10-15 min drive with the option of biking to work means way less stress and more free time.
[deleted]
Well, if you have to rely purely on public transport you can end your social live around 9 or 10 o’clock pm and have lots of time on your hand to go from A to B.
“Nobody uses public transport because it’s too crowded”
Good article but that part has me scratching my head
This article is from 2014, OP bad for not mentioning that.
The [2022 Inrix scorecard](https://inrix.com/scorecard/) put Brussels at 6th worst city in Europe and Antwerp is nowhere to be seen. Quite a different picture, not great not terrible i’d say.
When changing jobs one my biggest criteria was that the new job was nearby. Now it’s about 10 minutes to work by bike it’s fantastic.
Still have a car and it’s still useful, but good god living close to work is a luxury.
So, I live close to but not at walking distance from a major rail station. I could drive there, park, and take the train to wherever in the country. However: this would cost me close to 4 times as much money, and double the amount of time. We have the worst traffic because public transport is god damn expensive, cycling infrastructure is awful, and political aversion of actual policy to fix the issues.
I mean I guess it’s a way to stop drug traffickers, make it as inconvenient as possible to get out of the city.
I dont know what metrics they use on these indexes, but having lived in Bucharest (which rankes lower on the index) I can tell trafic in Brussels feels like holidays compared to Bucharest.
Lintbebouwing, 50-70-50-70-50-70, slechte wegen, kampioen in het plaatsen van hagen/ elektriciteitskasten/ palen in het zichtsveld op kruispunten, rampzalig openbaar vervoer…
I had company cars for years. Recently bought my own car. I use it just as much as I did the company car. Only difference is that now for each scratch I die a little inside instead of just shrugging it off. I really don’t see how company cars can add to congestion. It makes no difference whether you drive your own car or a company car to work.
16 comments
> “One could conclude that all this congestion is due to the success of our economy, rather than the failure of mobility policies,” says Kris Peeters, author of several books on the subject.
Is this the politician or another Kris Peeters (because he was minister of economy + “openbare werken” and this feels like a brag and deflection)? Cuz it’s very much both imo. At least he says that building more roads is not the solution.
> Perhaps Belgians just like their traffic jams.
No, it’s just that complaining and not paying is more preferable than paying.
Pretty spot on analysis on every single point.
“The OECD blames this on a rigid housing market, caused by the high transaction costs of buying a house. There’s also a strong anti-urban mentality. For many Belgians, owning a detached house with some green space in the neighbourhood where they grew up is worth all those hours on the road.”
People love their houses along a nationale lintbebouwing. First complaint after moving there. “There’s nowhere we can go for a walk without taking the car”.
The problem is the suburban lifestyle. Our cities should normally be much larger with better public transport and the countryside more empty.
Take Portugal, a country with a similar population. 40 to 50% of people live around Lisbon and Porto. Of course many live in appartment buildings.
I think our countryside has always been rather dense. It´s also not mountaineous, thus fit for living easily. Still it´s too dense now, since it´s not well accessible.
Allow me to add a 6th reason:
Retard politicians (and electorate) refusing to make a change, despite the blatantly obvious need to do so.
I’m glad I bought a home close to my job. Only a 10-15 min drive with the option of biking to work means way less stress and more free time.
[deleted]
Well, if you have to rely purely on public transport you can end your social live around 9 or 10 o’clock pm and have lots of time on your hand to go from A to B.
“Nobody uses public transport because it’s too crowded”
Good article but that part has me scratching my head
This article is from 2014, OP bad for not mentioning that.
The [2022 Inrix scorecard](https://inrix.com/scorecard/) put Brussels at 6th worst city in Europe and Antwerp is nowhere to be seen. Quite a different picture, not great not terrible i’d say.
When changing jobs one my biggest criteria was that the new job was nearby. Now it’s about 10 minutes to work by bike it’s fantastic.
Still have a car and it’s still useful, but good god living close to work is a luxury.
So, I live close to but not at walking distance from a major rail station. I could drive there, park, and take the train to wherever in the country. However: this would cost me close to 4 times as much money, and double the amount of time. We have the worst traffic because public transport is god damn expensive, cycling infrastructure is awful, and political aversion of actual policy to fix the issues.
I mean I guess it’s a way to stop drug traffickers, make it as inconvenient as possible to get out of the city.
I dont know what metrics they use on these indexes, but having lived in Bucharest (which rankes lower on the index) I can tell trafic in Brussels feels like holidays compared to Bucharest.
Thanks CD&V
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[Hoe één CVP-politicus verantwoordelijk is voor de wildgroei van lintbebouwing in Vlaanderen](https://www.knack.be/nieuws/hoe-een-cvp-politicus-verantwoordelijk-is-voor-de-wildgroei-van-lintbebouwing-in-vlaanderen/)
Lintbebouwing, 50-70-50-70-50-70, slechte wegen, kampioen in het plaatsen van hagen/ elektriciteitskasten/ palen in het zichtsveld op kruispunten, rampzalig openbaar vervoer…
I had company cars for years. Recently bought my own car. I use it just as much as I did the company car. Only difference is that now for each scratch I die a little inside instead of just shrugging it off. I really don’t see how company cars can add to congestion. It makes no difference whether you drive your own car or a company car to work.