The municipality of Ixelles has set up its new traffic plan for Place Flagey and the surrounding area. She presented it to local residents on Monday evening. As you can see on the map below, it will no longer be possible to go around Place Flagey by car. Thus, the part of the chaussée d’Ixelles located between the tram stop (de Valeras) up to the pedestrian crossing just before the rue de la Brasserie will be pedestrianised. Only bicycles and possible public transport will be able to pass.
Other “traffic filters” – authorized passage for bicycles and possible public transport but no cars – will be created on avenue du Général de Gaulle, along the second pond. While the Square du Souvenir (between the two ponds) will be one-way (direction Eperons d’Or). Ditto, above, for the Square de la Croix-Rouge, always in the same direction.
The Chaussée de Boondael will be one-way. We will no longer be able to access Place Flagey via this artery. We will also no longer be able to go up the first part of the avenue des Eperons d’Or (starting from the place Flagey) nor the first part (from the place Flagey to the rue Lannoy) of the chaussée de Vleurgat. Another small one-way section, towards Place Flagey this time, between Rue Lesbroussart and Rue Gachard.
The ponds and Place Flagey will become one
This new traffic plan is the result, among other things, of the result of the traffic study carried out at the start of the year by the BRAT and Arter design offices. Their analysis concluded that, in this district, 41% of journeys are less than 2 kilometers and 36% of journeys take less than 10 minutes, 41% of motorists do not leave the Flagey district (9.5%) or go to a neighboring district, 78% of journeys have the Brussels Region as their destination. Only 4.5% of journeys are longer than 50 kilometres. What made the Ixelles alderman of Mobility Yes Rouyet (Ecolo) say at the time that “cThis information is interesting because for very short journeys efficient alternatives exist. For example, to get to the city center, there are many bus lines”.
Un diagnostic final then allowed the municipality to present several scenarios. The municipality’s choice fell on scenario 2, called “mesh edge”. A less ambitious scenario than what the Gracq had suggested last fall. “It partially corresponds to what we had proposed. It goes in the right direction even if some of our members would have hoped for a step further”rejoices all the same the coordinator of Gracq Ixelles Frédéric Mertens. “This peaceful mesh will not prevent cars and trucks or anyone from coming to the show, to work or to the shops, but it achieves an important objective: to prevent through traffic. We are happy that Ixelles is starting to look like a 21st century city.
About 100 people attended the virtual presentation. “What is gratifying is that the vast majority were enthusiastic in their comments. This traffic plan will ensure that the ponds and Place Flagey will become one, with the exception of the passage of buses and tramways on the Chaussée d’Ixelles. This link has yet to be presented to the City of Brussels, which must validate it. Marginal changes might therefore be made.
Rue du Bailly as a pedestrian?
On the map, you can still see a traffic filter at the entrance to rue du Bailly, just outside the Flagey mesh, on the other side of avenue Louise. Does this mean that car traffic will be blocked at the entrance to this very commercial artery? Neither the municipality nor the region answered this question yesterday during the presentation. The City of Brussels will certainly have its say on this last point.
