Around 1,200 cyclists took part in the Critical Mass Belgium protest ride on Sunday afternoon from the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels to Tour & Taxis, according to police estimates.
Critical Mass Belgium demands better visibility for cyclists in the city and more developed infrastructure for road users. It brings together dozens, if not hundreds, of cyclists every last Friday of the month.
This Sunday, organisers of the Brussels chapter of the movement met with other “critical masses” from Aalst, Charleroi, Louvain, Ghent, Antwerp, Ottignies and more to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the very first “critical mass,” organised on September 25, 1992 in San Francisco in the United States.
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On the last Friday of each month in Brussels, cyclists usually meet at Trône at the end of the day, to then cycle through the streets of the capital together for an hour and a half. This is a visible way for them to campaign for future-oriented mobility and to demand a public space “on a human scale.”
While some take part simply to seize an opportunity to ride a bike with friends and show that cyclists also matter in urban traffic, others come with more ambitious demands, such as asking for greater consideration by political leaders of the air quality in the Brussels region, and therefore climate issues.
