Motorists will have to get used to a very big change on our roads. From 1 October, a novelty will be added to the Belgian highway code. “The middle lane” will emerge on roads where there is not enough space for a cycle path. Het Nieuwsblad details this novelty this Monday.
This new concept means that cars will now have to share a single lane on these roads, while weak users will have their own left and right lanes. To do this, cyclists and other mopeds will have to drive on the right, while motorists and speeders will have to take this “central” lane. It is then only when two vehicles meet in opposite directions that a driver will be authorized to take the right-hand lane reserved for cyclists.
A test phase of this new route is already underway in the north of the country, in Hasselt. Nevertheless, the first results are not those expected: “The cyclists seem to take up a little less space than on the roads where there are no indications. And motorists pass them faster. This contradicted our expectations and is of course not such a positive development”, says Wout Baert, from Fietsberaad Vlaanderen, to our colleagues.