The day after car-free Sunday in the Brussels Region, key moment of Mobility Week, back to normal. Make way for traditional cars, commuters but also tensions. The sharing of public space between motorized users, cyclists and pedestrians is sometimes complicated.
A finding that has been observed all the more since the Brussels Region launched major reforms with the Good Move plan : a reorganization plan for the city center aimed at regulating traffic and parking.
Changes that do not please everyone, nshady are those annoyed by this mobility plan. A polarization analyzed by Marie Vancutsem, Olivier Luminet, professor of health psychology at UCLouvain, as well as Claire Pelgrims, postdoctoral professor specializing in urban planning and mobility at ULB. “In general, we tend to consider that public space is immutable, that it has always been like thisexplains the latter. In fact, it’s always controversial, it’s always under discussion, it keeps evolving, and so it’s completely normal and it’s rather healthy that there are debates on the occupation of public space. We are in the very problematic stages, but without really having any concrete images of what it will look like in 10 years.”.
Polarization and common purpose
Olivier Luminet emphasizes that “iYou have to be careful how you present it because, precisely, if it’s presented too abruptly, it gives very emotional reactions all of a sudden. This is called polarization: people who were not too favorable to these changes suddenly become total opponents of this kind of change and they become radicalized. Politicians must accept the idea that sometimes it takes a little longer. It’s a completely natural psychological process.“.
Claire Pelgrims also recalls that this evolution of public space is at work almost everywhere in Europe. Belgium is not at all a radical pioneer in implementing all this: it is the logical sense of things because the car pollutes, consumes energy, it is not sustainable in terms of traffic jams, etc But that’s not all. It is also necessary to be able to project oneself, to write a collective story, to find oneself as a citizen in a common objective.
And for that, why not give something concrete? Olivier Luminet insists: we must show what already works. “What should be better highlighted, for example, is the direct impact on health. I think we need to show in scientific studies that with changes in the traffic plan, speed limits and fewer vehicles, the impact on air quality, and therefore on people’s health. There, people are very sensitive to it. They are ready to make an effort if, concretely, they realize, for example, that the percentage of respiratory infections will decrease or if they realize that life expectancy will increase by living in Brussels in an environment less polluted.“