2023-09-22 04:49:00
To find out for sure, the DH decided to carry out a major test in a real situation, similar to the one carried out by us two years ago and which saw the bike being the fastest to reach our editorial staff from Herrmann-Debroux in Brussels.
Our comparative test of mobility in Brussels: by bike, you can beat the metro!
This time, four of our journalists met at the Parvis Saint-Pierre in Uccle. With the same objective: to reach the offices of the Last Hour, each with a different mode of travel: the classic bicycle, the electrically assisted bicycle, the car and public transport. With a departure set at 9 a.m. so as not to harm the car by leaving during rush hour while not favoring it by leaving during off-peak hours.
The result is unrelenting: the journalists who left by bike arrived in the first two places, well ahead of the car, third, and public transport, dead last.
Our four journalists left at the same time from the Saint-Pierre square in Uccle to join the editorial staff of La Derniere Heure, in Merode. ©Bernard Demoulin
However, you had to be courageous to cycle the 7.9 km which separated the two starting and finishing points. The pouring rain was more of the type to encourage candidates to prefer the warmth of the passenger compartment of a car or a tram to the saddle of a bicycle. But that doesn’t matter: Thursday’s capricious, not to say rotten, weather is also part of cyclists’ daily lives.
The tram-metro combo: longer than the car or the bike in our full-scale test!
Dressed in rain pants, a suitable jacket and a waterproof backpack cover, we, as electrically assisted cyclists, set off, secretly hoping to arrive first. After a small misdirection at the start of the journey, we quickly caught up with the cyclist without assistance, struggling on the long and solid hill of Avenue de Fré. Before dropping it in the Bois de la Cambre and then railing once morest the poor synchronization of the lights on Boulevard Général Jacques: we drove through all the red lights until Arsenal, letting the cyclist without electrical assistance catch up with us. And having to wait more than two minutes at the General Jacques/Avenue Buyl intersection.
The conditions were not the most optimal for cycling, but this is part of the daily life of cyclists in Belgium. ©Bernard Demoulin
Once we arrived on the Chaussée de Wavre, the rest was just a formality. In the end, we arrived first at the office in 25 minutes and 30 seconds.
Animosity on the road reaches its peak
A real-life test which in no way claims to be scientific but which perfectly illustrates how the bicycle can be an effective travel tool in city centers. Just like public transport which, although it came last in our test, might have won the day if the starting point was better served.
The bike without electric assistance comes second in our test
It is especially the slope of Avenue De Fré, 2.5 kilometers long, which made the task difficult for our courageous journalist. ©Bernard Demoulin
The drache this Thursday was typically Belgian. Traffic jams too. But whatever. On bicycles, we happily pass the long line of cars on avenue De Fré. 2.5 kilometers of climbing to Bois de la Cambre… That’s the downside. Not being Remco Evenepoel, it is difficult for us to maintain a sustained pace on this Uccle coast, which, on our heavy Dutch-type city bike, exhausts us like La Redoute.
In our effort, however, luck smiles on us: the green lights come one following the other. A little joy that our colleague doesn’t experience on his electric two-wheeler. A minute saved here, two minutes there. On several occasions, to our amazement, we even catch up with him.
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But at the VUB level, luck changes. Our slightly early colleague crosses quickly just before the red light. And here we are stuck at the endless crossroads of the Middle Belt, where the seconds in the pouring rain seem endless.
After regarding half an hour of travel, we finally arrive at our destination of Etterbeek. Tired and soaked like a sailor in a storm… but pleasantly surprised not to have arrived last.
The car, third in 43 minutes 50
The car is certainly more comfortable than the bike in rainy weather, but it does not escape traffic jams. ©Bernard Demoulin
To travel from Uccle to Merode on a rainy day, the car is undoubtedly the most comfortable means of transport. However, it is not the fastest.
When the cyclists sweat while painfully climbing Avenue de Fré under their dripping K-Way, we lean back into the softness of our seats to let ourselves slide on the asphalt for 43 minutes and 50 seconds to Etterbeek.
On the radio, traffic news announces blockages everywhere. Slowdowns occur on the ring road, on the highways and on the access roads to the capital. Information which does not yet disrupt the tranquility of the passenger compartment, but which does cause the beginnings of concern. At 9 a.m., rush hour normally comes to an end. Will there still be lines on the route?
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Along the 29 traffic lights that dot the route – most of which were red when we arrived – our concern is confirmed. The cars move slowly, even on these roads in Uccle where the speed is not limited to 30 km/h. At the intersection of Avenue du Congo and Avenue Lloyd George, the light has time to turn red three times before we can cross. But the section that is undoubtedly the most boring is Avenue Général Jacques where delivery trucks, company cars and nervous vehicles rush past at a snail’s pace.
To be patient, there’s nothing like a little radio variation. It’s the opportunity to listen to a writer present her book, then to hear half a dozen rock and metal songs.
On rainy days, many people take their car to protect themselves from the drops. And unfortunately, this increases traffic. You then have to know how to bite your brakes without getting upset on the accelerator.
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