'The streets are more alive': Ghent readers on a car-free city centre

‘Teaching my son to cycle has been a fun and relatively stress-free experience’

The city has become a pedestrians and cyclists’ joy, especially for people like me who live in the city centre and have no car. As I type, they are busy turning our street into a low-traffic, communal woonerf or ‘living street’. It has become easier and safer to navigate the town on foot or by bike. Having recently returned from the Middle East the changes are even more striking, especially when it comes to my son. We were not ready for him to cycle before but teaching him to cycle on the roads here has been a fun and relatively stress-free experience. The changes have made an enormous difference to people’s quality of life. Khaled Diab, journalist and writer

‘I sold my car and switched to electric car sharing’

Yes it was drastic, but I believe there is no other way if we want liveable cities. Banning cars isn’t the end of the world. I sold mine and switched to electric car sharing. I worried about it but didn’t use it as much as I thought. In town I use the bicycle and it makes me happy. There are some negatives though. Public transport could be better at times and the city was cursed with negative communication: everyone thought the plan would be hell. So at the start people stayed away from the city, but things have now balanced out. Ine

‘People walking and talking mixed with the quiet zoom of bikes is a vast improvement’

A city where you can hear people walking and talking mixed with the quiet zoom of bikes is such a vast improvement over the incessant noise of cars. One really has to drive along the Coupure at rush hour to appreciate it in full. Thousands of people on their bikes on the busiest road and yet there is a certain calm to it. Businesses are flourishing and the city didn’t die like many naysayers predicted. The whole thing is awesome. If your city is planning to do the same my only advice is: don’t listen to the haters. Manu Joye, 41, IT manager

‘The cycle streets make it much safer for cyclists’

The expanded area has made it much safer for cyclists. Complementary policies have been introduced like the cycle streets which have led people to cycle more. There are also fewer accidents and the city has become quieter to live in. My advice would be to focus on the whole city not just a small area to not disadvantage people who are not able to afford to live in privileged areas. Ghent has established several cycle streets where cars can’t overtake bikes. This, for me, is a very powerful addition to just having restricted areas for cars. Moritz Gallei, 26, university research assistant

‘Through traffic is managed better’

It has transformed the grey (but even then exciting town) where I came to study 38 years ago into the lively and diverse city it is now. Living just out of the centre and in the area where cars are still allowed there are positive consequences. As the plan contains a reduction of ‘gates’ you have to use to get to the parking spaces (many of which are in the centre as they were built before the plan was conceived) the through traffic is managed better. Koen De Maeseneir, 56, manager of the federation of community health centres in the city

‘Cyclists and pedestrians are king’

I have a safer feeling as a cyclist compared to the time before the circulatieplan. The border of each area is now demarcated by ‘knips’. At these points cyclists and pedestrians are king. It’s a big misunderstanding that the city is not accessible anymore – we only got rid of traffic that doesn’t need to be there. If you want to go from point A to B by car, you use the ring [road] and don’t go through the medieval city centre. That’s logical, isn’t it? If you’re thinking of doing the same, don’t be afraid of change. Stijn

‘The air tastes better’

It’s funny to hear people say how it was impossible to get around Ghent and that they couldn’t use their car. For me, living in Leuven, a town with a similar circulation plan, it sounded like people were talking about visiting a war zone. My brother and his family live in Ghent and they got rid of their car because it became obsolete. What stands out most is the silence. Gone was the typical noise of cars. The air also tastes better than in the small towns where traffic is denser than in the city. And then you have the wonderful experiments of ‘living streets’, where people turn their streets into sitting rooms and extra gardens. Without cars there is so much more space in a city. Tine Hens, journalist, Leuven

‘The city centre is fun to hang around in all day’

Before the plan, big parts of the city used to be gridlocked for several hours each day. Although there was already an extensive pedestrian area, many lovely streets were spoiled by queueing cars. Now the city centre is fun to hang around in all day through. The number of cyclists is increasing impressively. Pedestrians are having a good time and most shopkeepers are doing great business. Most people are taking the change for the better for granted already. Lieven Van de Woestyne, 54, teacher

‘My only hope is that it is expanded to smaller districts outside the city centre’

I’m pro circulatieplan and really glad the city introduced it. The city is much more enjoyable than before. Some busy streets were just used as a passing-through by cars, by people who don’t live in the city and who don’t really need to be there. This caused a lot of unnecessary traffic. The city is still perfectly reachable for cars. There was so much negative publicity before its introduction that visitors now think they cannot visit Ghent by car anymore, which is not true. In fact, the car-free zones are just a very small part of the city. My only hope is that they continue to expand it to smaller districts outside the city centre of Ghent (eg Muide, Brugse Poort, Bloemekenswijk). If you’re thinking about doing the same, just go for it! Jolien

‘People put their chairs out in the summer to sit on the pavement and talk’

The inner city is a dream to walk and cycle in since there are barely any cars except for some taxis. Most of the cars that do drive in the inner city also drive a lot slower than they used to. Personally I feel like the streets are more alive as they aren’t just for cars anymore. More people put their chairs out in the summer to sit on the pavement and talk, and some streets become ‘living streets’ where the kids can play outside, skate, and adults hold barbecues. Eline