Road safety is a major challenge.
Even if the trend is towards a reduction in the number of people killed on our roads, the toll is still too high. In particular, pedestrians are over-represented among the victims.
To have a positive impact on road safety, action is needed in four areas: enforcement, infrastructure, awareness/education and vehicle adaptation. The Region's Road Safety Action Plan, approved by the government, details the measures that need to be taken for the entire Brussels region.
The responsibilities of the Brussels-Capital Region
The Brussels-Capital Region is responsible for
- monitoring the approval and technical inspection of vehicles
- the transport of exceptional and dangerous goods
- a part of the traffic code (in particular speed limits)
- the road manager's code
- driver training, including the control of driving schools and test centres and driving ability
- awareness-raising and information on road safety
These responsibilities are exercised by Brussels Mobility.
Tips
Checks and penalties to improve road safety
Controlling and sanctioning are priority actions to improve road safety, especially in the areas of speeding, driving under the influence, not wearing a seatbelt and running red lights. This is why the Region follows the 'speed camera' policy of the Brussels police zones. The Brussels Capital Region also makes mobile speed cameras available to the police zones in order to limit speeds in Brussels, speed control being the main road safety issue in Brussels.
In Brussels, controls are important: as an example, in December 2017, 30,000 'alcohol' controls were carried out as part of the BOB campaign. Drinking or driving in Brussels, you definitely have to choose, especially as the BOB campaigns take place twice a year: in summer and in winter.
Infrastructure that protects us
Although the figures from the statistics force the Region to pay particular attention to the safety of active modes of transport and motorcyclists, all categories of users are constantly monitored, particularly in terms of infrastructure safety.
- Brussels Mobility's 'road safety - infrastructure' experts check in particular the quality of the development projects under study (preventive approach)
- They examine the quality of existing developments on regional roads (curative approach).
- The guiding principle is to develop an infrastructure that is inherently safe and forgiving of user error. See technical publications for guidelines for road improvements.
Awareness-raising and educational activities
One of the areas in which it is possible to act to improve road safety is communication. To this end, awareness-raising and educational activities are supported or directly organised by Brussels Mobility, such as the pedestrian and cyclist certificates for young people or the road safety sequences of BX1 in Air du temps.
At the start of the new school year, Brussels Mobility organises, in collaboration with the police zones and prevention services, the distribution of Opération cartable tools to primary schools in the Brussels-Capital Region.
Teachers and facilitators interested in road safety can also discover educational tools, activities and find out more about the school travel plan programme.