Fiets-Gen, commuting to the future
By 2050 we wish to live in a country which is greener, more ecological and fluent in sustainable mobility. All of this and more, is what the Belgian Pavilion stands for at the Expo 2020 Dubai. With an exhibition dedicated to the subject and a pavilion situated in the Mobility District, this theme hits close to home.
According to Leefmilieu Brussels, 190 000 cars with commuters enter the Brussels Region every day. This evidently contributes to the Ring of Brussels being so heavily condensed during peak hours, but generally during most of the day, and the reason why our roads are damaged.
A way Flanders has decided to improve the roads is in the form of a new bicycle network, which will be laid out in the near future. The construction of the new bicycle network is planned for 2023 and will hopefully be completed by 2025.
By investing in bicycle networks, the government wants to tackle the mobility problem in Brussels and the Flemish periphery. More than half of the trips in that region are shorter than 5 km. For most of those trips, many people today still take the car. Often because the bicycle is not yet a safe and comfortable alternative. That is why Flanders, together with the Brussels-Capital Region and the province of Flemish Brabant, is fully committed to cycling.
The Fiets-GEN (Regional Express Network) comprises 400 kilometres of cycle paths. Thanks to those extra cycle paths, people will be able to commute more comfortably by bike to work or school. In a first phase, 15 new main routes will be prepared for cycling.
However, this is not the only large scale bicycle path being used at the moment. Since March, employees, local residents and light-traveling passengers coming from Brussels or Leuven, have been able to cycle to Zaventem Airport. According to Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport who was interviewed by the VRT, this is an initiative that is not only safe, but also very sustainable.
In the coming months we wish to enlighten you even more on the various sustainable mobility option being introduced in our Pavilions exhibition. One example being Bike Valley, the Flanders-based innovation center for the sports industry, is committed to increasing the importance of cycling in society.