this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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29
Brussels bike ban plan for pedestrian zone ‘dangerous and absurd’ (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by kwero@sh.itjust.works to c/europe@feddit.org
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[–] Humanius@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Having cycled in that pedestrian zone several months ago when I was in Brussels, I can certainly see why they would want to ban cycling in the area.

I got the impression that it was too busy with pedestrians to meaningfully cycle there. It would be better if cyclists dismount and walk if they need to be there, and otherwise cycle around the area.

The alternative suggestion in the article to clearly mark a bike lane with paint, would only work if the pedestrians also honour the paint by not walking in the bikelane. Somehow I doubt that that will happen.

Sometimes cycling and walking are incompatible, especially if there is large masses of people. If you can't have both keeping the space as pedestrian-only seems like the preferable outcome.

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yup. The major problem with cyclists and various flavors of scooter, both regular and especially electric, is that they seem to think of themselves as pedestrians, when they're in fact vehicles (incidentally, a major problem for cyclists is being considered pedestrians by car drivers).

It's plainly visible when you're standing at a red light and see a bike split lanes, get on the zebra, veer right, get onto the perpendicular zebra, make the crossing like a pedestrian, and get back onto the road and drive off. Or, for an example I've seen in Amsterdam, a woman with a baby in the back, going 20kmh, just plow straight into 20 people with no braking and expect them to part for her like she were pushing her way through a crowd with a stroller. From my experience, cyclists in pedestrian zones treat foot traffic as bad if not worse than drivers treat bike traffic.

[–] huppakee@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago

From my experience, cyclists in pedestrian zones treat foot traffic as bad if not worse than drivers treat bike traffic.

Dutchie here, have seen many cyclists and many pedestrian-only zones in my life and can confirm that cyclists can be dangerous assholes too. If traffic cannot be split, it doesn't mean it should be mixed.