Best Practice

Introduction

It’s a fancy way to explain a decision the city made some years ago to try and remove traffic from Ghent’s historic city centre. The main goals they aim to achieve are:

More space for pedestrians and cyclists

A safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists, and a generally healthier one for all of our lungs

A more efficient city centre with fewer traffic jams, or files as they’re known here. Business and emergency services etc can get where they need to more quickly.

The Circulation Plan in Ghent

Reason to Be Selected

The plan has bring many positive changes to the city:

Channeling the city’s traffic:Cars will be guided to the ring road.The historic heart of the city will be entirely car free, creating more space for bikers and pedestrians.

Making Ghent accessible and liveable: To keep the city liveable and to promote its local economy, drastic changes were made to the city’s mobility.

Car-free zones: The existing car-free zone will therefore be expanded to make room for benches, terraces, greenery and bicycle racks. ;

Creating space: Some streets will prohibit cyclists between 11h and 18h while others will transform into pedestrian-only streets in the summertime.

Highlights:

Whoever now wants to move from one city district to another must make use of the inner-city ring road. The ultimate goal of the Circulation Plan is to take through traffic out of the city centre. That means whoever needs to be in the city centre will be able to get there more easily. One year after the implementation of the circulation plan in Ghent traffic accidents within the ring road of the city centre decreased with one third, 35 to 40%. There is less traffic in the city, so there are fewer accidents.

Details

The plan includes the following measures:

The city centre was divided into 6 zones.

Cars wanting to get from one zone to another need to use the inner ring road (R40) to do so

You’ll see red and purple stripes (see image) on the roads – and pavements – in certain locations. These mark new public spaces (knips and car-free zones, or a low-traffic area in Sint-Pieters-Nieuwstraat). You can’t drive down here. Instead you need to go back up to the ring and around.

Within the 6 circulation plan zones, some extra streets are closed to vehicles, others are closed to cyclists

Some streets are now one-way for vehicles

Around 1900 street signs were changed/added

Conclusions

Whilst the plan necessitates big changes that will require some adjustment from residents, the city will reap the benefits in the long term. The main benefits are that:

The city center will remain accessible because of the Circulation Plan. Pedestrians, cyclists and public traffic will profit, but cars that need to be in the city centre will also be able to reach their destination faster. Suppliers, health care providers, or older people will also be able to access and find car parking space more easily.

The Circulation Plan keeps the city center livable. Cyclists, pedestrians, trams and buses confiscate take up less of the available public space than cars.