'Renewing Brussels's outer ring road and the myth of travel time savings' | Kobe Boussauw (VUB)
In April 2021, the Flemish government published its plans for the renovation of the R0, the outer ring road around Brussels. The balance of advantages and disadvantages of various alternative scenarios were assessed in a social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) and in an environmental impact assessment (EIA). Despite the markedly political character of the planning process, both the SCBA and the EIA are technical studies that support the impression that the process is guided by scientific research that can objectively distinguish between better and worse scenarios. However, the applied methods of analysis do not take into account recent insights into the phenomenon of 'induced traffic', which means that the project will probably not lead to travel time savings in the long run, nor to a decrease of congestion. As a result, the SCBA significantly overestimates the economic benefits of the project, while the EIA underestimates the environmental effects. Possibly, road pricing could support the achievement of the stated objectives, although it is not included in any scenario.
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Kobe Boussauw is an associate professor of spatial planning and mobility, part of the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research deals with the reciprocal relationships between mobility, planning, and the built environment, both in an analytical and in a policy oriented sense. Kobe's concern is mainly with the relationship between proximity as a spatial quality, urban liveability, and sustainability.