Are the streets around Brussels schools becoming safer?

A “school street” — rue scolaire in French and schoolstraat in Dutch — is normally closed to most motor traffic for a limited period at the beginning or end of the school day. The exact hours, access exemptions and physical system are set locally, so families should read the sign at the entrance rather than assume that every closure works alike. Residents and authorised vehicles may have specific arrangements, but pedestrians and cyclists retain priority and any permitted driver must proceed cautiously.

Not every safer school environment is a school street. In Haren, BRUZZ

Organisation

City of Brussels

Brussels municipality that announced safety changes around several school environments in August 2025.

Why it matters

Brussels municipality that announced safety changes around several school environments in August 2025.

About

The City of Brussels is the largest municipality and historical centre of the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the Flemish Region, and Belgium. The City of Brussels is also the administrative centre of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions in its European Quarter.

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Those examples show why newcomers need to distinguish the Brussels-Capital Region from the City of Brussels and the other 18 communes. A commune, or gemeente, is the local municipality: Ixelles/Elsene, Schaerbeek/Schaarbeek and Anderlecht are separate road authorities even though all belong to the Brussels Region. A defect on a regional avenue may be handled by Bruxelles Mobilité; a problem on a municipal street may go to the commune. Fix My Street, a regional platform available in French, Dutch and English, routes public-space reports to participating authorities and lets users follow their status.

For an immediate hazard, the platform instructs residents to call the emergency services on 112. For a non-urgent defect, photograph the problem without putting yourself or a child in danger, record the exact address and describe whether it concerns a traffic light, worn road marking, damaged surface, sign, pavement or street furniture. Longer-term requests — such as a new crossing, a timed closure or a redesign — are better raised with the school management, its parent council and the mobility service of the relevant commune or gemeente. Schools themselves can ask Bruxelles Mobilité about joining the Plan de déplacements scolaires, or Schoolvervoerplan, programme.

The current construction programme sits within a longer shift in how Brussels pupils travel. The Region says that about 60% of pupils were driven to school in the late 1990s, whereas seven in ten now travel by foot, bicycle or public transport. It also says school mobility plans

More recent figures reported by BRUZZ reinforce the direction of travel. In 2025, 32.4% of primary pupils travelled by car or carpool, down from 35.5% in 2023, while active travel rose from 43% to 45%. BRUZZ said 336 of the capital’s roughly 850 schools were then participating in school mobility plans, covering more than 100,000 pupils. The figures indicate progress, but they do not prove that every route or junction has become safe.

Indeed, the Region’s 2021–2030 road-safety plan warns against concentrating only on the few metres outside the gate. Drawing on research by the Belgian Road Safety Institute, now Vias institute

The human cost has not disappeared. BRUZZ, citing regional figures, reported that 482 minors were injured in Brussels traffic in 2024. That was below the 543 recorded in 2016, yet still substantial enough to challenge any suggestion that infrastructure around every school is now adequate.

Street closures can reduce conflict and create calmer entrances, but their management may demand staff, volunteers, barriers and agreement among neighbours. The trade-off surfaced in Rue du Nid/Neststraat in Ixelles/Elsene, where BRUZZ reported in April 2025 that traffic was readmitted after a temporary pedestrian arrangement. An opposition councillor and some parents wanted the closure retained for safety and air-quality reasons, while the municipal mobility alderwoman said later consultation showed that support among the school, nursery and residents had weakened.

That debate does not undermine the wider safety objective; it shows that design, access and enforcement must fit the street. Brussels’ regional road-safety plan itself cautions that a measure limited to the school gate should be assessed at neighbourhood scale so that danger is not merely displaced to the next junction.

Families can expect more visible furniture and additional projects through 2026, alongside the two planned cameras on Chaussée de Ninove. The larger target in the regional plan is for existing school surroundings to be secured by 2030. What remains unclear is how many locations still fail the desired standard, how quickly municipal projects will progress and whether casualty reductions can be attributed to particular interventions. The most useful test will therefore be practical and local: whether children can complete the whole journey — not only the final metres — safely and with growing independence.