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Give less space to cars on Rue de la Loi, petition says
Cyclists and pedestrians should be given more space on Brussels' Rue de la Loi - and the number of car lanes reduced - according to a new petition signed by more than 1,000 people.
Three cyclists' associations, Gracq, Fietsersbond and EUCG submitted the 1,086-name petition to Brussels mobility minister Pascal Smet on Tuesday.
They say the layout of the Rue de la Loi needs to be rethought. "There are four lanes for traffic, alongside which cyclists and pedestrians must share a very narrow pavement," a Gracq spokeswoman said. "In peak times it's far from ideal."
Last summer, about 400 people occupied part of the street in a "citizens' picnic" calling for a fairer distribution of the available space.
Brussels Mobility handed out 100 gifts to cyclists on the Rue de la Loi on Tuesday, where a counting station positioned near the Maelbeek road bridge since last September has just recorded its 100,000th cyclist.
Comments
Not a good idea. True, we want to encourage bicycles and public transport, but eliminating absolutely necessary car lanes is not the answer.
Let’s remember we need to encourage Brussels based business too.
Walking along Rue de la Loi is a pretty horrible experience but narrowing it without a more holistic approach will just mean longer queues, drivers searching out more rat runs and blocking up further adjacent roads making them worse as well. The fundamental problem is simply that there are just too many vehicles and until this overall issue is sorted in the long term, it's (with chagrin) better to sacrifice one road than several.
I believe that the Belgian Government and the European Commission should monitor several different parametres concerning Rue de la Loi and thake an action, I don't think that such kind of high level of noise and pollution are in line with the rules in force, we shouldn't forget that Brussels is the visit cord of Europe, should we present to the world our continent in this way and in the meanwhile talking about how to deal with sustainability, biodiversity, pollution, habitats conservation, organic agriculture? In the most populated Italian towns (South and North) we have always monitoring stations recording the above mentioned parametres along the year, finally the competent authorities provide a feedback to the municipality in order to know whether it is necessary or not to regulate the access to specific areas. Finally I think that the several Belgian public services using siren (police, ambulance, firemen) and maybe taxis should be the only ones to be entitled to drive in Rue de la Loi, they are always forced to switch on the siren with a consequential disturb for all the workers in the office.