How can activism influence urban mobility policy?

My personal experience in Brussels bears witness to the crucial role of activism, as demonstrated by two successful initiatives.

The first began shortly after I moved into the European quarter. Together with the residence committee, we started lobbying and taking action to transform the five-lane freeway that passes in front of the European Commission. We wanted to transform it into a much narrower lane for cars by enlarging the sidewalks and creating two bicycle lanes, and we succeeded. This project took place in 2003, and at the time people were skeptical. But today, it’s evolved so much that, during the Covid, the number of bike lanes doubled, and we now have two bike lanes in each direction.

The second initiative, comes from an article I published in 2012, “Picnic the Streets”. The idea was to organize a civil disobedience movement by picnicking in the middle of the center lanes of a highway. Despite opposition, it paid off. Today, the Place de la Bourse boasts a beautiful, long pedestrian zone. There was a lot of lobbying and perseverance, with groups of young people coming out in support, and also courage on the part of those in power. Today, it’s unthinkable that we’ll go backwards.