How Brussels started to see past the car

I’ve not seen a better portrayal of how the car has come to dominate the way we live and tie us to a failing way of transport that costs millions.

I’ve always associated Belgium with bikes, so I was surprised to watch this film that blew that out of the water.

‘Brussels Express’ is a film about bicycle messengers in Europe’s most congested European city. Before you rush off, muttering something about bicycle messengers, blah, blah, I was almost the same.

It’s a very well made film and I love the characters. Karl-Heinz, the bike messenger, talks about the time he started his business 10 years ago and how the city has changed. He is pretty incredulous at how people just sit in their cars and accept it as if it is normal.

Other interesting insights comes from the mayor of Stockholm. His visits to Brussels just leave him gobsmacked at how impossible it is to move around the city. It’s not just rush hour, it’s grid locked at every hour. He then talks about the way Stockholm transformed by introducing congestion charging* even when around 60% of people were against it. Then when they saw the benefits, that was reversed.

Anyway, a lovely video, well worth the 20 mins.

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*IBM helped implement the congestion charging system into Stockholm – this was a bizarre coincidence (read more)

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