Conflict; Cars, People, Beauty

On our van ride to the flathotel from the airport, our van driver told us that Brussels has the worst traffic in Europe and over 200,000 people commute into the city by car each day. I confirmed this fact later in the day and found that his estimate was even a bit low.

As I meandered around Brussels with my classmates I quickly fell in love with the city except for one thing: the traffic. The noisy traffic is to be expected along motorways and the main streets, but I was surprised to see long lines of cars on side roads all throughout the city during our van ride and other walks during high traffic times.

On a walking tour with Paul, our professor, I was glad to hear that the city of Brussels is doing its best to combat the problem using a few different strategies. The boldest move that they have made so far is to completely close one of the main streets to cars, and turn it into a pedestrian only zone.

Our first weekend trip was to Bruges and Gent, two wonderful cities a little further north from Brussels in Belgium. In both cities I found that the center of the city was closed off to vehicular traffic except for buses, trams, and taxis. This created an amazing pedestrian experience within the city that allowed me to focus on the wonderful architecture and culture all around me.

This past weekend was our class trip to Paris. Paris is similar to Brussels in the amount of cars that I noticed on the street. Around many historical buildings and monuments such as the Arc de Triomphe, The Eiffel Tower, and Palais Garnier the traffic was loud and distracting from the beauty of the buildings and surrounding areas. Paris could take some lessons from Brussels in creating pedestrian zones in the historic center of the city to try and make it a more enjoyable place to be.

I am excited to do more exploring and traffic volume/noise analysis throughout the rest of the semester in all the places that I am able to visit!