Slow down already, says new campaign from Brussels Mobility

The Brussels Capital-Region has launched a mobility campaign to get drivers to slow down. Under the tagline ‘Moins vite c’est mieux’, the campaign includes public posters and information online about traffic deaths and how long it takes to bring a car to a full stop.

The speed limit across in the capital-region is either 30 or 50kph. But many drivers regularly go faster than that, according to the Brussels Mobility agency.

The outcome is 50 traffic accidents a year that are fatal or in which someone is seriously injured. Those are just the accidents that are directly related to excessive speed. The first half of this year, the Brussels police recorded more than 142,200 violations of the speed limit.

“The impact of an accident at 50 kilometres per hour is much greater than one at 30,” Inge Paemen of Brussels Mobility told VRT. “Respecting the speed limit is crucial to prevent accidents but also to limit the consequences of accidents that do happen.”

According to Brussels Mobility, it takes 13 metres to bring a car to a full stop that is traveling at 30kph. That doubles to 26 metres when a car is traveling 50kph. Or consider this: A pedestrian hit by a car going 30 has the same impact as falling from the first floor of a building. At 70kph, it’s like falling six floors.

The Moins vite c’est mieux campaign will be part of all information released in the run-up to creating a 30kph zone across the entire capital-region. That process will be complete by sometime in 2021.

Photo: Thierry Roge:BELGA