Proposition 54K0539

Proposition de résolution visant à améliorer la sécurité des piétons et des cyclistes dans la circulation.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Roel Deseyn, Jef Van den Bergh

Submission date

Oct. 28, 2014

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

transport and mobility resolution of parliament transport accident statistics two-wheeled vehicle road safety transport statistics pedestrian road traffic

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PVDA | PTB PP VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Stéphane Crusnière (PS | SP) abstained from voting.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Nov. 30, 2017 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I am referring to the written report. I will speak later as a representative of the group.

I will speak on behalf of our group. Normally, colleague Dumery follows this dossier, but she participates in a foreign mission for the Council of Europe.

First and foremost, I congratulate the initiators, our colleagues Van den Bergh and Deseyn, for their initiative towards this resolution. I think everyone agrees that the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in traffic, the so-called weak road users, can be increased. Unfortunately, the word “weak” is often taken very literally.

When we look at the figures from the Traffic Safety Barometer last year, we can identify a number of developments. In Belgium, the number of deaths on the spot has decreased by 17 to 483 in 2016 and 2017. This is mainly due to a decline in the Flemish Region of 24 deadly casualties.

As for the number of registered injuries, the trend in our country is globally negative. The reduction in the number of injuries was observed in all Regions with a global decrease of 5.2%. In the Flemish Region there is even a decline of as much as 6.9%.

Nevertheless, we remain far from the targets set by the General States, namely a maximum of 420 deaths by 2020. This government will continue to take measures to counter the increasing number of deaths from pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

For example, the Law on Improving Road Safety of 8 February was passed to strengthen the treatment of problem drivers. Minister Van Overtveldt recently announced that the bicycle fee also applies to the longer, safer road route. A new Road Code is also being worked out, including the possibility of introducing crossings where the traffic lights for all cyclists will jump on green at the same time.

The Flemish government is also investing heavily in increasing road safety, including through additional investments in safer infrastructure, bicycle highways and the accelerated removal of black spots.

Today we vote in the House on a resolution aimed at increasing the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in traffic. This resolution advocates a wide range of measures that should have a beneficial impact on the road safety of these vulnerable road users.

The NV-A group also believes that a strict control and punishment policy is necessary, as well as, of course, an appropriate punishment. A solution to this still lies in grabbing, in particular the driving license with points. This is one of the requests that the applicants have included in the present resolution.

My group will always be fully committed to increasing road safety, both at local, Flemish and federal levels. The NV-A Group will therefore approve this resolution.

First of all, I would like to congratulate and thank my colleagues Jef Van den Bergh and Roel Deseyn for submitting this proposal which, beyond the theme, forces us to think about those who are the weakest traffic users. I also thank my colleague Inez De Coninck for her speech. My dear colleagues, the House is preparing today to vote in favour of a text that is ⁇ important to me and to the whole of our group. The aim is to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in traffic.

Pedestrians and cyclists are ⁇ vulnerable road users. According to the various sources of the SPF Economy, it can be found that, as the number of serious injuries and light injuries evolved, while their number has, overall, decreased considerably for all road users, on the other hand, it increases among pedestrians and cyclists, which is extremely sad. As a result, it is a fact that the share of the latter in the number of victims continues to increase and, this, even in Soignies. Let me also emphasize, my dear colleagues, that, both among pedestrians and cyclists, it is within the category of three times twenty years and more, if I dare to say, that the vast majority of victims are found!

For example, 35% of pedestrians and 40% of cyclists are over 75 years old. In other words, there is urgency and I welcome the fact that this proposal for a resolution calls on the federal government to conduct much more studies on the causes of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists and, above all, to link concrete policy measures to reduce the number of accidents. In addition, it is also essential to be attentive to the development of intelligent technologies for vehicles, including speed adjustment systems or alcoholocks.

Dear colleagues, this proposal of resolution comes at point nommé, because it alerts us on the extreme necessity of putting in place of measures strong and not of half-measures. These strong measures will allow desormais de mieux protéger ces usagers vulnérables que sont les cyclistes et les piétons.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the colleagues who have already taken the floor and expressed their support for this draft resolution.

It is important that the room sends a signal. It is not new. Over the past few weeks, months and years, we have read with the regularity of the clock reports in the newspapers about cyclists and pedestrians who died in our traffic. Every one of us here can think of such an accident, as well as its impact on the family and friends involved, and on an entire congregation or city.

With the proposal for a resolution, Parliament aims to send a strong signal that it is committed to the safety of the soft road users. Both pedestrians and cyclists are still overrepresented in the number of deadly and seriously injured road traffic victims, and their share is unfortunately increasing.

Ms. Inez De Coninck has already noted that road safety is progressing. Fortunately, the number of road traffic casualties is falling, but if we focus more on pedestrians and cyclists in those statistics, we still see a disturbing story. I will give a few figures to illustrate this. The latest official figures date from 2016. At that time, 23% of road traffic fatalities were gentle road users. There were 149 fatalities, 11% of which were cyclists and 12% pedestrians.

As many as 36% of seriously injured road traffic victims in 2016 were soft road users. That is almost 1,500 cyclists and pedestrians, who have to stay in the hospital for more than a month after an accident and then we are not talking about subsequent rehabilitation.

The proportion of lightly injured road traffic victims is slightly lower, but we must consider strongly the underregistration of the number of lightly injured weak road users in the statistics. This is evidenced by every study that compares hospital statistics and official accident statistics.

If we look at the long-term evolution, we see that the number of road deaths has decreased by 33% since 2009 but that decrease is much less occurring among the soft road users. For cyclists there is a decrease of just 20 % and for pedestrians of 23 %. If we put these figures together, the result is that the proportion of soft road users in the total number of road deaths, deaths and serious injuries has increased sharply in recent years, namely by 15 % among road deaths and by as much as 52 % under the number of serious injuries. If we dig deeper into these figures, we see that in our society especially older soft road users are affected and that many schoolchildren and children as soft road users are also affected by road safety.

Over the past six months, the demand from the population for greater safety for soft road users, pedestrians and cyclists has increased exponentially. I do not need to point out the animo after recent accidents, for example in Antwerp. Unarmed parents launched petitions for more conflict-free crossings and charters were signed to ban trucks at certain hours in school environments. Last week, the Municipal Monitor taught us that most Flamings are especially concerned when they themselves and especially when their children use the bicycle. Less than half of the Flaming people think that they can safely cycle in their neighborhood and two out of three parents are not reassured if one sends their child into traffic.

All these calls for attention and signals point to us, politicians, that we need to make even more efforts to take action in this area. Of course, every policy level will have to take responsibility for this: the municipal and city governments, the Flemish level, the federal level and not to mention the provinces, which play an important role in the field of cycling roads.

Many measures can be taken, including at the federal level. Collega De Coninck has already referred to the fact that the legal framework to set the traffic lights for all cyclists at the same time on green must still be entered in the Road Code. What we can still initiate, for example, is the accident investigation. We can also comply with the recommendations of the State-General for Traffic Safety for a greater capability and a better level of enforcement to reduce the risks and dangers on the road. I repeat the objectives in this regard once again: one in three drivers check for alcohol, drugs and belt wear in the traffic each year and 40 million drivers check for speed. A policy tool for proper registration of the number of checks is also important, and it still suspends this today. In this regard, we can ⁇ make improvements.

We also look forward to the study of Vias on the driving license with points. That driving licence could also be an important tool for improving road safety, in addition to the development of techniques and safety technology in vehicles, such as intelligent speed adjustment and the alcohol lock.

With the present proposal, road safety will not suddenly become a dream in our country, but it must above all be a strong signal from the Chamber that we consider the safety of pedestrians and cyclists very important and that we want to take even more measures in order that they can safely take the track. I look forward to a broad support for the draft resolution, as in the committee.

March 22, 2018 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I am referring to the written report. I will speak later as a representative of the group.

I will speak on behalf of our group. Normally, colleague Dumery follows this dossier, but she participates in a foreign mission for the Council of Europe.

First and foremost, I congratulate the initiators, our colleagues Van den Bergh and Deseyn, for their initiative towards this resolution. I think everyone agrees that the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in traffic, the so-called weak road users, can be increased. Unfortunately, the word “weak” is often taken very literally.

When we look at the figures from the Traffic Safety Barometer last year, we can identify a number of developments. In Belgium, the number of deaths on the spot has decreased by 17 to 483 in 2016 and 2017. This is mainly due to a decline in the Flemish Region of 24 deadly casualties.

As for the number of registered injuries, the trend in our country is globally negative. The reduction in the number of injuries was observed in all Regions with a global decrease of 5.2%. In the Flemish Region there is even a decline of as much as 6.9%.

Nevertheless, we remain far from the targets set by the General States, namely a maximum of 420 deaths by 2020. This government will continue to take measures to counter the increasing number of deaths from pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

For example, the Law on Improving Road Safety of 8 February was passed to strengthen the treatment of problem drivers. Minister Van Overtveldt recently announced that the bicycle fee also applies to the longer, safer road route. A new Road Code is also being worked out, including the possibility of introducing crossings where the traffic lights for all cyclists will jump on green at the same time.

The Flemish government is also investing heavily in increasing road safety, including through additional investments in safer infrastructure, bicycle highways and the accelerated removal of black spots.

Today we vote in the House on a resolution aimed at increasing the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in traffic. This resolution advocates a wide range of measures that should have a beneficial impact on the road safety of these vulnerable road users.

The NV-A group also believes that a strict control and punishment policy is necessary, as well as, of course, an appropriate punishment. A solution to this still lies in grabbing, in particular the driving license with points. This is one of the requests that the applicants have included in the present resolution.

My group will always be fully committed to increasing road safety, both at local, Flemish and federal levels. The NV-A Group will therefore approve this resolution.

First of all, I would like to congratulate and thank my colleagues Jef Van den Bergh and Roel Deseyn for submitting this proposal which, beyond the theme, forces us to think about those who are the weakest traffic users. I also thank my colleague Inez De Coninck for her speech. My dear colleagues, the House is preparing today to vote in favour of a text that is ⁇ important to me and to the whole of our group. The aim is to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in traffic.

Pedestrians and cyclists are ⁇ vulnerable road users. According to the various sources of the SPF Economy, it can be found that, as the number of serious injuries and light injuries evolved, while their number has, overall, decreased considerably for all road users, on the other hand, it increases among pedestrians and cyclists, which is extremely sad. As a result, it is a fact that the share of the latter in the number of victims continues to increase and, this, even in Soignies. Let me also emphasize, my dear colleagues, that, both among pedestrians and cyclists, it is within the category of three times twenty years and more, if I dare to say, that the vast majority of victims are found!

For example, 35% of pedestrians and 40% of cyclists are over 75 years old. In other words, there is urgency and I welcome the fact that this proposal for a resolution calls on the federal government to conduct much more studies on the causes of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists and, above all, to link concrete policy measures to reduce the number of accidents. In addition, it is also essential to be attentive to the development of intelligent technologies for vehicles, including speed adjustment systems or alcoholocks.

Dear colleagues, this proposal of resolution comes at point nommé, because it alerts us on the extreme necessity of putting in place of measures strong and not of half-measures. These strong measures will allow desormais de mieux protéger ces usagers vulnérables que sont les cyclistes et les piétons.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the colleagues who have already taken the floor and expressed their support for this draft resolution.

It is important that the room sends a signal. It is not new. Over the past few weeks, months and years, we have read with the regularity of the clock reports in the newspapers about cyclists and pedestrians who died in our traffic. Every one of us here can think of such an accident, as well as its impact on the family and friends involved, and on an entire congregation or city.

With the proposal for a resolution, Parliament aims to send a strong signal that it is committed to the safety of the soft road users. Both pedestrians and cyclists are still overrepresented in the number of deadly and seriously injured road traffic victims, and their share is unfortunately increasing.

Ms. Inez De Coninck has already noted that road safety is progressing. Fortunately, the number of road traffic casualties is falling, but if we focus more on pedestrians and cyclists in those statistics, we still see a disturbing story. I will give a few figures to illustrate this. The latest official figures date from 2016. At that time, 23% of road traffic fatalities were gentle road users. There were 149 fatalities, 11% of which were cyclists and 12% pedestrians.

As many as 36% of seriously injured road traffic victims in 2016 were soft road users. That is almost 1,500 cyclists and pedestrians, who have to stay in the hospital for more than a month after an accident and then we are not talking about subsequent rehabilitation.

The proportion of lightly injured road traffic victims is slightly lower, but we must consider strongly the underregistration of the number of lightly injured weak road users in the statistics. This is evidenced by every study that compares hospital statistics and official accident statistics.

If we look at the long-term evolution, we see that the number of road deaths has decreased by 33% since 2009 but that decrease is much less occurring among the soft road users. For cyclists there is a decrease of just 20 % and for pedestrians of 23 %. If we put these figures together, the result is that the proportion of soft road users in the total number of road deaths, deaths and serious injuries has increased sharply in recent years, namely by 15 % among road deaths and by as much as 52 % under the number of serious injuries. If we dig deeper into these figures, we see that in our society especially older soft road users are affected and that many schoolchildren and children as soft road users are also affected by road safety.

Over the past six months, the demand from the population for greater safety for soft road users, pedestrians and cyclists has increased exponentially. I do not need to point out the animo after recent accidents, for example in Antwerp. Unarmed parents launched petitions for more conflict-free crossings and charters were signed to ban trucks at certain hours in school environments. Last week, the Municipal Monitor taught us that most Flamings are especially concerned when they themselves and especially when their children use the bicycle. Less than half of the Flaming people think that they can safely cycle in their neighborhood and two out of three parents are not reassured if one sends their child into traffic.

All these calls for attention and signals point to us, politicians, that we need to be more committed to measures in this area. Of course, each policy level will have to take responsibility for this: the municipal and city governments, the Flemish level, the federal level and not to mention the provinces, which have an important role in the field of cycling roads.

A lot of measures can be taken, including at the federal level. Collega De Coninck has already mentioned that the legal framework for setting the traffic lights for all cyclists on green at the same time must still be entered in the Road Code. What we can still initiate, for example, is the accident investigation. We can also comply with the recommendations of the State-General for Traffic Safety for a greater capability and a better level of enforcement to reduce the risks and dangers on the road. I repeat the objectives in this regard: one in three drivers check for alcohol, drugs and belt wear in the traffic each year and 40 million drivers check for speed. A policy tool for proper registration of the number of checks is also important, which it still suspends today. In this regard, we can ⁇ make improvements.

We are also looking forward to the study of Vias on the driving license with points. That driver’s license could also be an important tool for improving road safety, in addition to the development of techniques and safety technology in vehicles, such as intelligent speed adjustment and the alcohol lock.

With the present proposal, road safety will not suddenly become a dream in our country, but it must above all be a strong signal from the Chamber that we consider the safety of pedestrians and cyclists very important and that we want to take even more measures so that they can safely take the track. I look forward to widespread support for the draft resolution, as in the committee.