Unlike many Northern European capitals, Brussels is not feted as a paragon of sustainable mobility. With neither the robust cycling culture of Amsterdam nor the comprehensive transit system of Paris, the Belgian capital of 1.2 million has instead earned a reputation for being painfully gridlocked. A 2014 analysis by the company Inrix ranked Brussels as one of the two most congested cities in Europe or North America, with the average driver spending 83 hours annually stuck behind the wheel.
Belgium’s road network, designed to usher cars into and out of the capital, hasn’t helped. In 2014 The Guardian described Brussels as lying in the center of “a spider web of highways that is impossible to evade.” Twenty years ago 75% of Brussels households owned at least one car.
