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On an unseasonably mild winter\u2019s day, people are gathering at Le Pi\u00e9tonnier, the pedestrian zone in the heart of Brussels. Tourists buy mulled wine and churros at the Christmas market outside the Bourse, the old stock exchange, now repurposed as a beer museum. A few people drink coffee on cafe terraces. Up and down the length of the 650-metre-long space, people come and go, bikes and scooters weaving in and out of the crowds.<\/p>\n
Next year, this scene will look somewhat different: bikes and scooters will be banned from this 18,000-sq-metre pedestrian zone for most of the day. People on two wheels will be allowed to ride only between 4am and 11am. At all other times, they must dismount and push their vehicle up the street, or face a fine.<\/p>\n
Ana\u00efs Maes, the city counsellor in charge of urban planning and mobility, suggested not all cyclists obeyed the existing 6km speed limit. \u201cIn everyday reality, people do not respect that rule or don\u2019t know it, and so it creates conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maes, a member of the Dutch-speaking socialist Voorhuit party, is aware of \u201csmall accidents\u201d and complaints from pedestrians. \u201cI\u2019ve heard multiple persons say, especially older persons or persons with little kids, or persons with reduced mobility, [that] they don\u2019t feel safe, because they live in fear of not being able to step aside quickly enough or being hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brussels officials have not decided exactly when the change will enter into force, as negotiations within the council over implementation are ongoing.<\/p>\n
In a sense, the Brussels Pi\u00e9tonnier is a victim of its own success. Extended a decade ago to make the city greener, calmer and cleaner, it transformed a swathe of the centre from a traffic-clogged, four-lane road into a place for walkers, strollers and cyclists, revitalising cafe terraces and open-air gatherings. It was a transformative shift for a city that had long suffered from its mid-20th-century love affair with the car<\/a>.<\/p>\n For instance, the Grand-Place, the magnificent central square, with intricate, gold-leaf-adorned guildhalls and gothic city hall, was effectively a car park until 1972 and traffic was not banned entirely from the square and its cobbled environs until 1991.<\/p>\n