Why do Flemish people more often use their bike than Walloons?
In Belgium, we can say that Flanders and Wallonia are quite different on several scales: culture, economy, … But today let’s focus on the mobility differences which reign in the two parts of Belgium, and more precisely on the cycle track variations within Flanders and Wallonia.
Walking through Wallonia and Flanders is really not the same in terms of cycling tracks. In Wallonia you can only sometimes see a cycle track, called Ravel, but it is really not present in the whole of Wallonia whereas in Flanders you can see cycle tracks all through the landscape of Flanders.
In Flanders, people use the cycling track mostly to go to work and to do sports. It seems like it is more part of the Flemish culture and that Flemish people have more the instinctive reflex to grab their bike instead of riding their car to go to work. On the contrary, in Wallonia people use the Ravel mostly for entertainment and just to go for a ride. The bike seems to be forgotten in Wallonia. This unpopularity of the cycle track in Wallonia is shown by a survey led by the IBST (l’Institut belge pour la sécurité routière). They surveyed a group of a thousand people to know whether or not they feel safe in the traffic.
The answers to this survey concerning the bicycle showed that 70% of the Flemish people had used their bike during the last twelve months whereas in Wallonia and Brussels only 20% of people said they had used it during the last twelve months. So, as this survey showed, there is quite a massive gap between the two Belgian regions.
So, why is there such a huge difference on the use of the bike between the two Belgian regions? The survey has also shown that Flemish who use their bike feel much more safe in the traffic than Wallonian people, which explains why they use their bike less. They also neglect their bike to go to work because the Ravel cycle track does not link big cities. Flemish cycle tracks lead cyclists in the centre of the cities (which helps cyclists to get to their work), whereas Wallonian cycle tracks don’t. Even if Wallonian people have access to the Ravel cycle track, they prefer the car and neglect their bike because of feeling insecure in the traffic while on their bike.
To make up for this feeling of insecurity, the region of Flanders has decided to build new cycle tracks throughout Flanders but no plan has been made to tackle the problem in Wallonia. The Flemish budget to help people go to work with their bike and to enlarge the network of cycle tracks rises up to 22 million euros. The region of Wallonia has chosen for another option which is to enlarge the Ravel cycle track, using the former railway but not to set a budget to create a real separate cycle track like the Flemish ones.
While waiting for the enlargment of the cycle track in Flanders and Wallonia, statistics show that one out of eight Flemish people grab their bike to go to work whereas only one out of hundred people use their bike to go to work in Wallonia. Let’s hope that with the development of the Flemish and Wallonian cycle tracks, these statistics will increase and improve the feeling of safety in the traffic so that Belgian people will choose the bike over the car to go to their workplace.
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