The Flemish government has unveiled its new Cycling Plan. Under the plan all children aged 8 or more should be able to cycle to school or locations where they can pursue their hobbies on their own safely. To achieve this goal most cars and trucks will be banned from such areas. The Cyclists’ Association is not impressed by the timing.
Flemish mobilty minister Lydia Peeters (liberal) wants to get more people cycling. In 2020 just over 14% of all journeys in Flanders were made by bike. By 2040 this figure should more than double if the new Cycling Plan is to be a success.
One of the ways minister Peeters hopes to achieve this is by making cycling safer. Today cyclists remain too vulnerable. During the past five years the number of cycling fatalities has continued to rise. In 2021 67 cyclists were killed in traffic. Last year the figure was 73.
The number of cyclists being injured in road traffic accidents too continues to grow. Last year 9,000 cyclists were injured. The figure is up 1,500 in only two years’ time.
The Cycling Plan promotes the use of the “child standard”. This means that all children aged 8 or more should be able to cycle to school or locations where they can pursue their hobbies on their own safely. In practice, Ms Peeters wants to ban all motorised vehicles from school areas and areas where cultural and sports activities for youngsters are held.
Also under the plan 125 dangerous intersections need to be tackled each year. The aim is to avoid ‘conflicts’ between cyclists and other road users as much as possible – in other words to keep different forms of mobility separate as much as possible. To achieve this aim the Flemish government budget for cycling infrastructure is being increased to 300 million euros a year. Part of the money will be used to complete missing links on cycle superhighways.
VRT understands that local authorities haven’t been involved in the drafting of the Cycling Plan even though they are responsible for the lion’s share of Flemish cycling paths. The Flemish regional authorities are only responsible for around 9,000 km of the 40,000 km of cycling paths in Flanders.
The Cyclists’ Association isn’t impressed by the plan. “Of course we agree with the ambitions of the plan” says Wies Callens “but we’re not impressed by the timing”.
Callens would have preferred to have seen greater ambition and 2030 as the target date and not 2040 like in the plan.
“It means that children born today will be aged seventeen by the time a safe bike journey to school or to a leisure activity can be guaranteed”.
“Things should move faster” says Callens. “All these things aren’t that difficult. Traffic needs to be made safer now and not by 2040. We’re not only concerned about cyclists but also about pedestrians. Getting through the traffic should never be more important than road safety”.
Callens is also critical that civil society wasn’t consulted in the drafting of the plan: “A large group of people are on the case of road safety and cycling. They have not been consulted”.