How do we keep the zero?

Car-free living

Safe to school

Smart cities and towns

Opinion

The report of our roads does not look so pretty. The Road Safety Barometer for 2022 shows that the number of deaths (at the scene) on our roads has increased by more than 8% compared to 2021. For our mobility ministers, 'Getting to zero' seems like a goal that is increasingly out of reach.

Vision Zero: a distant dream?

Across Belgium, the figures are on the rise. And this is despite all the measures, technical innovations, awareness campaigns and rising infrastructure and safety budgets. When 'Vision Zero' becomes a distant dream, you know you have a problem.

De harde cijfers

+8%

verkeersdoden in 2022

ten opzichte van 2021

95

dode fietsers in 2022

dat zijn er 21 meer dan in 2021

521

verkeersdoden in 2022

op de Belgische wegen

Elke 2 dagen

sterft een zachte weggebruiker

op de Belgische wegen

We can't solve everything with technology

Yes indeed, technology has saved many tens of thousands of lives in recent decades. Just think of something as simple as the seat belt, the blind spot mirror or automatic emergency braking systems. Speed reductions and section controls systematically lead to fewer serious accidents and fewer road deaths. Interestingly, technological innovations often apply mainly to motorised traffic rather than to active road users. Those, crudely put, stay alive by grace of car technology that is merciful to them. The dramatic figures from the Road Safety Barometer show that technological progress clearly also has limits when it comes to saving lives.

Technology is still needed to make our traffic safer, but the gains to be made from it in the years to come are more likely to be marginal. Not 'newer cars' but 'fewer cars'. That would have a much greater impact in achieving the end goal of zero road deaths.

We stick to old strategies

Most people don't like change very much. We twist ourselves into all sorts of corners and do everything we can to keep everything as much as possible as it was before. If necessary, with some vandalism added if that can make things stand still (or go backwards). However, since 20 November, the United Nations' International Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims, we also know that old recipes have led to more than 80,000 (!!!) road deaths over the past 50 years. That's carrying the entire population of an average Flemish city centre, say Mechelen or Hasselt, to the cemetery. It's 80,000 names on a carpet far too long during a moment of remembrance. But at least as bad, they represent a multitude of people with grief that will never go away.

Meanwhile, Belgium remains the leader in subsidising fossil fuels. And with every crisis, we cling desperately to a past that we have actually known for a long time that will/should never return. Why not listen to our old-fashioned common sense that says: actually, I can cycle to work or to the shops once in a while, actually, it's interesting that my employer pays for a train ticket, actually, I don't need to go on flying holiday three times a year ...

We sabotage our star player

We know that public transport is the backbone of a healthy mobility system. And yet, year after year, public transport companies have to make do with less budget, lines are abolished, rural areas are overlooked and Basic Accessibility has been completely eroded in the meantime.

Public transport must become truly public, and therefore for everyone, so that it guarantees accessible mobility everywhere in the country. The question of whether it is then profitable is really not the most important one. Instead, liveability should be the most important measure. After all, reliable, comfortable and affordable public transport removes the need to get in the car. Of course, you cannot avoid all car trips; you will always have necessary traffic. But in a world with fine-meshed public transport, sustainable alternatives and good facilities, that necessary traffic will at least never again be stuck in traffic jams.

Triple win with human-sized streets

No one likes to see people die, and yes, we have tried to make our traffic less murderous. Yet over all these years, there has also come a certain sense of resignation that our traffic does kill. We refuse to accept that at Mobile 21, for the simple reason that traffic deaths are a (system) choice and not just an accident. And so car-free villages and cities are the future. Less car traffic frees up space for people to dream, to re-breathe, to live better. Take away the car, encourage active and shared mobility, bring back proximity, and watch this score a pure hat-trick for society:

Zero road deaths (perhaps before 2050, imagine).
Healthier villages and cities with a more human and social character.
The end of transport poverty because everyone gets where they want to get.

Do we choose people (lives) or machines?

Technology, legislation and prevention are teetering at the limits of their capabilities. So, dear policymakers: put your money where your mouth is. And work on decent, reliable, comfortable and affordable transport systems that really have the potential to cause zero traffic deaths. So throw the current attitude of 'mathematically everything is still possible' resolutely overboard. Because it is nothing less than an admission of weakness when it comes to reducing the number of road deaths. And, dear Belgians, show that you can and want to change your behaviour. With the 30 Days Less Car campaign, you have already proved that it is possible, if only you get the chance. The latest FietsDNA survey by Fietsberaad also shows that we want to cycle more, both functionally and for pleasure. But again, a lack of safe infrastructure makes people hesitate.

If we refuse to really change, to really choose human lives and quality of life then we are heading for an ignominious defeat in the coming decades too, which will be on the tables in blood-red for years to come.