In smart city Brussels, shared mobility is growing fast, including in its oldest form: public transport. The number of bus, tram and metro journeys continues to grow, while solutions for smart car use are also being developed.
Traffic jams? In the smart city there is always more than one way to get to your destination. Technological solutions to reduce road congestion include city tolls, like they have in London and Stockholm, or real-time collection and processing of traffic data, like in Lyon. A parallel and complementary approach is promoting soft modes (bicycles or walking) and shared mobility.
Public transport is the oldest form of shared mobility. Other complementary solutions have emerged in recent years. They include self-service bike sharing, car sharing and taxi-buses. All these shared transport solutions are available and increasingly successful in the Brussels-Capital Region. They help us achieve the goal of
the Iris 2 regional mobility plan to achieve a 20% reduction in the number of cars on the road by 2018 compared with the 2001 figure.
Selected figures on smart mobility in Brussels:
Brussels public transport (STIB):
- Almost 365 million journeys made in 2014
- 52.4% increase in ridership in the past decade (2004-2014)
- Almost 2,200 stops or stations at an average of 418 metres apart
Self-service bicycles (Villo!):
- 4000 bicycles in service
- 350 operational docking stations at an average of 400 metres apart
Night taxi-buses (Collecto):
- Average 12,000 users per month
- 200 departure points throughout the Brussels-Capital Region
Local car sharing (VAP):
- First supervised hitch-hiking network launched after a Brussels-Capital Region project call
- More than 4,000 members
Shared cars (Cambio):
- 100 stations at an average of 800 metres apart
- More than 10,000 users
Shared electric cars (Zen Car)
- 26 stations in the Brussels-Capital Region
Soft mobility in Brussels
- Three times as many bicycle journeys in Brussels as ten years ago
- 40,000-50,000 cyclists per day
- 37% of Brussels inhabitants mainly walk
