The City of Brussels officially signed the SAVE road safety charter on Monday. The charter has seven objectives, all aimed to ensure and encourage road safety, according to local media reports.
"Road safety is the greatest fear of our residents," said Mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close. “We are therefore implementing a structural policy to guarantee the maximum safety of our neighbours and especially of our residents. By signing this charter we are putting even more priority on this.”
The charter has seven objectives. Firstly, it calls for a thorough road safety review. Following this, it seeks to redress the priority of road users, with pedestrians coming first, then cyclists, public transport, and lastly, private transport.
Finally, the charter also calls for the mobility policy to be adapted in order to educate children and young people. Road safety days will be organised in schools, and areas in which children and young people congregate will "systematically" be made safer.
This final step was highlighted by Bart Dhondt, Brussels Alderman for Mobility, as he stated, “with the SAVE charter, the City of Brussels reaffirms its desire to become a city for children.”
The SAVE charter has also been implemented in several other areas in Belgium, including Balen, Lint, Zandhoven, Zemst and more.
Madeleine Fletcher
The Brussels Times
