Saint-Gilles best commune for school streets, Auderghem has none

The municipalities of Saint-Gilles, Forest and Brussels-City are the most proactive in the Brussels region when it comes to creating school streets, according to a new ranking published by the non-profit organisation Les Chercheurs d’Air.

School streets are roads that restrict traffic from cars at the beginning and end of the school day. Limiting road traffic around schools helps to better protect children from air pollution, noise pollution and the risk of road accidents, the organisation said.

In recent years, more school streets have gradually been added in the region. However, the efforts made by municipalities are very unevenly distributed.

The municipalities were ranked on the basis of seven criteria, such as the proportion of schools benefiting from a school street or the promise by councillors responsible for mobility to create new ones.

Saint-Gilles came in first, ahead of Forest, the City of Brussels, Jette and Schaerbeek. At the bottom of the list are Koekelberg, Anderlecht and Auderghem.

A number of municipalities did not respond to the association’s questions. These are Ixelles, Molenbeek, Etterbeek, Saint-Josse, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Anderlecht.

“Saint-Gilles comes out on top by far, with 40% of its primary schools already benefiting from a school street and a political will to create new ones,” the organisation said.

“Forest and Brussels have a low rate of school streets but are committed to catching up by creating new ones, including a pedestrian street in Forest.”

Schaerbeek and Jette also score above average. In Schaerbeek, almost 20% of schools already have a school street, but there are plans to create only one more. Jette has few facilities but is committed to setting up two new school streets by 2027.

“School streets are a great and easy-to-implement tool for protecting our children from air pollution,” said Renaud Leemans, campaign coordinator at Les Chercheurs d’Air.

“We are delighted to see that some municipalities have understood this and are committed to this development.”

Elsewhere, targets have not been reached due to a lack of existing school streets, a lack of willingness to create more, or a combination of both, the report found.

Auderghem is at the bottom of the ranking, as the only municipality that has not created any school streets. According to Les Chercheurs d’Air, its alderwoman for mobility is not committed to creating them.

“It’s a shame that some municipalities do not seem to care about the wellbeing of their children,” said Leemans.

“Their exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution may cause them serious health problems in the short, medium and long term.”

Out of 622 nursery and primary schools in the Brussels region, 121 are exposed to NO2 concentrations between two and three times higher than the World Health Organisation threshold. None are below this recommendation.

However, only 11% of primary schools have a school street, even though 70% could easily have one, according to Les Chercheurs d’Air.