Study launched on emissions generated by scooters and motorcycles

The Brussels-Capital Region is launching a study into the effect of two-wheeled motorised vehicles, like mopeds, motor scooters and motorcycles, on air quality in the capital. The idea is to find out how damaging motorised vehicles other than cars actually are on the environment.

The Bruxelles Environnement agency wants clear data on how much CO2 different kinds of motorised vehicles contribute to air pollution. The initiative follows a study carried out in Paris that showed that two-wheeled motorised vehicles emit up to 10 times more CO2 and up to five times more nitrogen oxide than a car running on petrol.

Stijn Vancuyck of vehicle federation Febiac told Bruzz that mopeds and motor scooters were not stuck in traffic like cars are “and so make shorter trips and are responsible for less emissions than start-and-stop traffic”.

According to Febiac, the Paris study was too narrow. “They based the study only on the most polluting two-wheelers, like motorcycles that accelerate quickly and can travel at fast speeds,” said Vancuyck. “We would ask that the Brussels study be carried out correctly, and that we – whatever the outcome – continue to benefit from the vehicles with the lowest emissions.”

Bruxelles Environnement emphasises that the study is one of several being carried out in the run-up to phasing out diesel-fuelled, and eventually petrol-fuelled, vehicles in the region. Emissions from busses, cars, delivery vans and lorries are also being measured.

Photo: Nicolas Maeterlinck/BELGA