Brussels will always be a special place for me. As I wrote down once on a sign for a protest for better air quality:
I have lost my heart in Brussels but my lungs are screaming to me to leave here.
I have met many beautiful, truly inspiring and heart warming people here. I happily invested and still invest time and energy in several social cultural projects for and with the local neighborhoods, especially in Rue du Progrès in Schaerbeek where La poissonnerie is located. And last but not least it’s where I have left my old steal road bicycle behind for those times when I visit “La Capital”. It’s always a joy to ride my fast wheels with thin tires in the city, especially when I maneuver through the (im)mobility puzzle which Brussels is. At a certain moment Brussels was together with Antwerp and Detroit top 3 in the world in terms of traffic jams.
But it’s good to be realize that cycling is not a game. The (traffic) rules seem not to exist and the consequences of mistakes can be brutally hard. This ghost bike that crossed my path yesterday in Anderlecht was a good reminder about that. Ghost bikes stay behind as a memorial at places where cyclists were killed in traffic, not only in Brussels, but also in Flanders and other parts of the world.
The origin of this tradition is in the United states in the early 2000’s. In Amsterdam bicycles painted over in white already appeared in the 60’s when anarchists and other progressive people tried to create a system of free floating bicycle to everybody could use. Unfortunately many of these ended up not floating but sinking in the canals in Amsterdam. Black could have been a better color for the ghost bikes, except for the fact that they are not only placed to remind our fallen pedaling comrades but also to remind and warn drivers of vehicles that have more potential to kill. There is several other citizens initiatives in Brussels that strive to create safer environments for pedestrians, cyclist and habitants of the city, a few worth to mention are:
– Critical Mass: cyclist who gather every last friday of the month (so that’s next week again on friday 27/9) at 18:00 at Port de Namur for a collective bike ride through the city to mark our presence. It’s an international initiative since it’s a very common problem in cities all over the world. So check on the internet or with your cycling friends if there’s a critical mass in your city!
– 1030/0 who strives to bring down the number of deaths in traffic back to 0, after several lethal accidents in a short time.
– Bxl’air and Filter café : more focussed on the air quality for which I think the only durable solution is to reduce traffic drastically in the city and therefor also improving safety in traffic.
These topics are important to point out and discuss next sunday during carefree sunday in Brussels. The name is a bit misleading because there will be still quite some cars, buses, taxis, emergency services driving around in the city so stay safe, keep your ears and eyes open and warn each other.
There’s only one thing left to say: