The West Flemish capital and popular tourist destination significantly expanded its bicycle zone in the city centre on 1 October. The old bicycle zone included 90 streets where bicycles had priority and motorised vehicles are supposed to stay behind cyclists. The zone has now been expanded to cover 390 ‘bicycle streets’. This is more or less the entire city centre: almost all streets within the Bruges ring road. Only major arteries and important public transport routes will remain outside the larger bicycle zone.
A bicycle zone is an area in which cyclists play the lead role. All road users – including cars and buses – are limited to a maximum speed of 30 km/h and must stay behind cyclists. With the expansion of the bicycle zone, the centre of Bruges will soon have 87 kilometres of bicycle streets.
Mayor Dirk De fauw: ‘That is the highest number of kilometres of cycle streets in the whole of Belgium. We are making Bruges even more the cycling city that it already is. Not only in the centre, but also in the boroughs, there are now already many cycle streets. Cyclist safety is very important.’
Some streets still outside the bicycle zone
Major arteries and routes used by public transport company De Lijn will be kept outside the expanded bicycle zone. This is necessary to continue to guarantee accessibility of the city centre and a smooth-running public transport system.