2023-08-02 15:02:00
Last Thursday, in the Alhambra district in the center of Brussels, a scooter rider was apprehended by the police following a chase for excessive speed: the machine was traveling at around 60 km / h. Last summer, another scooter rider exceeded 112 km/h in the Annie Cordy tunnel. Speeds that greatly exceed the limit in force, set at 25 km / h.
A rule that the Brussels government has just tightened. During the last Council of Ministers, it was decided to finally limit all scooters to 20 km/h in the capital. Among free-floating operators (self-service scooters), 20 km/h are already in force and vehicles are restricted. But this limitation will now also apply to private, commercially available devices. “We want to standardize”, explains the office of Brussels Minister Elke Van den Brandt (Groen).
Eleven mopeds immobilized for speeding in Brussels including a scooter stopped at 60 km / h
In the municipalities, we judge that the measure is going in the right direction. In Saint-Gilles, the mayor Jean Spinette (PS) evokes a “public safety issue” and says he is in favor of more supervision of these motorized two-wheelers in view of the worrying accidents and multiple infractions.
“When motorists are limited to 30 km/h, 20 km/h seems sufficient for scooters. An accident with a scooter at 20 km/h can already be serious”, emphasizes Vincent De Wolf (MR), mayor of Etterbeek and regional opposition deputy. “Taking a rule is good. Enforcing it is better.”
Stopped at 112 km / h at … scooter in the streets of Brussels: “If they fall, it does not forgive”
“Hardly to control”
The question of control still remains obscure. Contacted on this subject, several Brussels police zones pass the ball back to politicians, where the ball is passed between the services… It is up to us that currently only major excesses are subject to control and verbalization, and not overruns a few km/h.
The road safety agency Vias, for its part, does not hide its skepticism as to the application of the new standard. “It is difficult to apply and it will have little effect. I can understand the reason, the desire to standardize, but it seems impossible to apply on the ground,” said the spokesperson.
According to the agency, safety problems affect users of shared scooters, already restricted in Brussels to 20 km / h, more than users of private scooters “often well equipped”. “The priority is to better enforce the current rules.”
New rules for scooters, fines are already falling in the Brussels Region: “we are in a repressive phase”
Last summer, the federal government already tightened the screw with three new rules: formal ban on driving on the sidewalk, for two, and for under 16s. Measures that are beginning to bear fruit. In the Brussels Region, as we mentioned recently, tandem driving, although it remains a very present phenomenon on the regional territory, is on the decline. In the Brussels-Ixelles area, for example, the number of offenses was 230 between July and December 2022… compared to 61 between January and June 26.
An “unapproved” scooter that can travel at more than 100 km / h seized in Wezembeek-Oppem
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