Those of us that live, work or visit the capital regularly will at one time or another have been stuck in traffic. But when did Brussels experience its first traffic jam? The Brussels regional news platform Bruzz investigated.
In 1958 Brussels played host to the World’s Fair. Expo 58 ran from 17 April to 19 October 1958 and attracted more than 42 million visitors from all over the World.
The World’s Fair took place on the Heizel Plateau in the north of the city’s Laken district. One of the most visited exhibits at the 1958 World’s Fair was the Atomium, an iconic Brussels landmark that still attracts visitors in droves almost 70 years later.
The flood of visitors to Brussels brought with it a big increase in the amount of traffic. It was then Brussels experienced its first traffic jams.
In order to accommodate the millions of visitors to the World’s Fair, many of whom came to Brussels by car, major investments were made in modernising the capital’s roads.
The inner ring road was widened, tunnels were built and wide boulevards were constructed to the Expo 58 site. The aim was to make the World’s Fair site and the rest of the city easily accessible for motorists. However, the sheer scale of the infrastructure work that was undertaken was instrumental in creating the traffic congestion issues that we are faced with today.
Expo 1958
A television programme broadcast at the time that was entitled ‘Operatie Brussel’ (Operation Brussels) espoused hope for the future. Its theme tune was a children’s song with car horns sounding merrily along with the tune for good measure.
However, as soon as the World’s Fair opened to the public traffic on the city’s roads ground to a halt. A large number of visitors came by car and parked their vehicles at the side of the road wherever the could find space or simply refused to pay to park on one of the official Expo 58 carparks. The city was unable to cope with the influx of vehicles.
The “temporary” measures taken to accommodate the increase in traffic that had been expected but underestimated remained visible decades after the World’s Fair had closed. The Koekelberg Viaduct, for example, was only taken down 26 years after Expo 58 in 1984, when what is now called the Annie Cordy Tunnel opened to traffic.
Parts of the Tervurenlaan that carries traffic from Sint-Pieters-Woluwe (Brussels) to Tervuren (Flemish Brabant) and a section of the A12 motorway were constructed in the late 1950s with the express aim of facilitating access to Expo 58 for those planning to visit the World’s Fair by car.
67 years later Brussels is one of the top ten cities in the world when it comes to traffic congestion. The navigation system manufacturer TomTom says that it currently takes an average of 27 minutes to drive 10km in Brussels. This is the same amount of time that it would take tp cover the same distance on an e-scooter. The average Brussels motorist spends more than 100 hours per annum stuck in traffic jams.