Online tool calculates travellers’ impact on Brussels air quality

Brussels Mobility, the Brussels region's mobility agency, has developed a tool that allows users to calculate the impact of their transportation journeys on the city’s air quality.

Developed in collaboration with the Brussels-Capital Region's environmental agency Brussels Environment, the online calculator invites users to enter their daily transportation habits and subsequently determines the impact of those journeys on the capital’s air quality.

Depending on the obtained results, users are offered recommendations inviting them to more often use public transport or bike-share systems and shared electric scooters.

Brussels Mobility spokesperson Inge Paemen told Bruzz that the tool will hopefully spur people to make changes. “We’ve noted in the past that it’s easier to involve people when they can themselves compare and play with the data,” said Paemen. “First of all, they become much more aware, which can produce a change in behaviour in the short term. And people who try out alternatives like the electric scooters during that period are likely to continue valuing those in the long term.”

According to Brussels Mobility, 632 people die in Brussels every year due to the city’s poor air quality and emissions of pollutants like particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

Photo courtesy of Brussels Environment