Ghent's Political & Media Obstacles to Implementing the Traffic Circulation Plan

[@johanwittens7712]

Local resident and big supporter of the plan. But the video misrepresents the plan a bit. Gent already had had a light circulation plan implemented since the 1990's. This second plan didn't just come out of thin air and built on what came before. This is important to realise as a city planner from abroad. In the 90's a first plan was implemented where a large part of the old city center was pedestrianised. Many streets were redesigned, the old canal sides were redesigned and so on. Many streets were made one way to guide traffic in certain directions and to make it harder for cars to get through the city. Biking was promoted with a lot more and a lot more decent biking infra, public transit was given priority on many places, and so on. Interesting also to note that back then there was the same backlash, the same negative press and the same negative predictions. Gent would die, shops would close, tourism would end, no one would want to live in gent anymore. But the 2000s proved the opposite and gent became one of the most pleasant and sought after places to live in Flanders. Many cities in Flanders followed suit after the succes demonstrated in gent. And now this plan built on the plan from the 90's and further extended it, made it more thorough, further extended pedestrian areas, further promoted biking, made the city more car resistant, and so on. But this definitely all didn't happen overnight. It's a result of 25 years of consistent city policy... Now if only the city of gent concentrated their efforts on quite a few painfull points and gaps in the biking Infrastructure of the city, and took away a few very confusing changes made for bikes with the new plan... I'd be a very happy biker...

[@higgledypiggledycubledy8899]

Thanks for pointing this out, I remember my dad who was a taxi driver telling me in the nineties how Ghent had become difficult to navigate with a car 🚗 It was a bold move 30 years ago 👌

[@KJSvitko]

Every city should be a bicycle city. It is better for people and the planet. Less noise, no emissions, fossil fuels free transportation. Clean air to breathe.

[@Maxime_K-G]

Yeah, unless a city is VERY hilly, it just makes so much sense!

[@KJSvitko]

@@Maxime_K-G Ebikes are great for hills. More older adults are coming back to cycling because of ebikes. They are great. You still get healthy exercise but you get help on the hills if you need it.

[@Maxime_K-G]

I was thinking they were pretty expensive when I wrote that but actually, in a completely rational world, it would make more sense to use Ebikes than expensive cars.

[@KJSvitko]

@@Maxime_K-G With ebikes hills are no longer a problem.

[@grassytramtracks]

@@Maxime_K-G i mean, they cost more than a standard bike, but less to buy and run than a car, that's for sure

[@alexysq2660]

So, sincerely, marvellous: much kudos and appreciation to all those who helped/worked towards and (pro-actively) supported the implementation of this plan, particularly considering its having been done in the face of such ignorant - vicious, even - opposition (including threats of death/violence) from misguided, self-serving/self-interested exponents of the (existing at the time) 'status quo'; if it were up to me, all of whom would now be serving 'life sentences' in some ultra maximum-security prison - with absolutely NO possibility of parole or leniency ({; D ...! *~*Streetfilms**

[@mrbonzzai]

The real estate prices increased because the plan was so successful. The solution is to make surrounding suburbs very bike friendly as well. It doesn't make sense to want the plan to be less successful. Likewise it makes no sense to say to an attractive person that they should make themselves less attractive so they are approachable to more people.

[@leonpaelinck]

the suburbs desperatly need tram connections to the center. Right now only Evergem and Zwijnaarde have a tram. It goes WAY TOO SLOW

[@elroysterckx242]

I am a big supporter of this plan. And if you look at the real estate prices since implementation you can see Belgium needs more of this!

[@KJSvitko]

How much of the negative media slant on stories is dependent on the fossil fuels industry advertising money.

[@michaelnj700]

Do you ever think how public trnsit development would effect oil industry?

[@KJSvitko]

@@michaelnj700 General Motors bought up trolley companies in the 1950's and then shut them down. It eliminated the competition by buying them. Trolleys were a great transportation option in many cities and were electric.

[@grassytramtracks]

Probably a lot

[@grassytramtracks]

@@michaelnj700 it's the oil companies worst nightmare and walking and cycling are even more disastrous for them

[@paolagrando5079]

I would like this kind of "virus" to take over the world. Great job to everybody who has been involved from the beginning to change in a better way this city.

[@leonpaelinck]

We need more politicians with balls and vision

[@monsoonmast]

Lovely film :D

[@hansolo2121]

This traffic circulation plan is a Dutch invention. It is copied directly from the Dutch city Groningen where the exact same circulation plan has been in effect since the 1970s! The Belgians should give credit where credit is due. They copied it from the Dutch and now seem to pretend they invented it themselves.... But it already exists in the Netherlands for more than 40 years! That is why they needed Dutch planners to help them set it up. Now they even say Dutch planners warned them for political suicide? I don't believe that. In the Netherlands bicycling has ruled political and urban desicion making now for decades already. I can imagine perhaps that many Belgian planners did think it would be political suicide. Because politics in Belgium is ... slow and backward thinking. So in Belgium I guess it really is a miracle this could happen. While in The Netherlands this kind of pro-people plans for cities are considered normal. The Dutch already had a strong political will to develop cities more towards people than cars since the seventies. The starting point in The Netherlands was the 'stop de kindermoord' protests in the early seventies. I am happy to see Belgian cities are now starting to copy the Dutch bicycle culture. And are now starting to change their cities like the Dutch started to change their cities 40 years ago.

[@tans48uwa]

They did give a lot of credit to the Dutch. It is in the other video. It is excellent what this city and the Dutch cities are doing!

[@StreetfilmsCommunity]

@@tans48uwa yes. Thank you. And for those who want to watch here is the Groningen Streetfilm I did back in 2013! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKeWaX1tiLB7lck

[@mariosphere]

But isn't it a good thing, when as many cities as possible copy this? If I were Dutch, I were proud that other cities copy this plans.

[@johannesluoeman9817]

Its flanders

[@hendrikdependrik1891]

Dutch planners don't know how their plans would have worked out abroad. Belgium has much more of a car culture than the Netherlands. After all, they implemented the American Interstate/Highway System and have completed it anyways despite the 1970s sentiment. Dutch planners also know the Amsterdam, Utrecht and Groningen bicycle policies still have a large opposition to it, because people can't live anymore downtown properly when the places are extremely desirable like they're now. People have to move to the suburbs and even to the other side of the country or leave the country altogether by moving over the border to Germany and Belgium, because real estate prices have risen so much due to the pro-bicycle policies from the municipalities. Rotterdam for its size has pretty affordable real estate prices due to the fact it's still a pretty car-friendly city. Another disadvantage of a pro-bicycle (+train) policy is that farmers are starting to riot, because city people without cars visit farmers less than rural/suburban people depending on their cars. This creates two separate worlds that will face at each other over time once city people are getting too disconnected from the farmers, because environmental regulations of city people don't make sense to the farmers and rural people. It even makes their way of life impossible to function properly! Don't be surprised if in the near future the Dutch farmers are going to attempt a coupe d'était and - if successful - undo all of the bicycle-friendly/eco-friendly policies the Netherlands is well-known for. At least, I wouldn't be with the existence of the Farmer Defence Force.