Smet considers traffic cameras to catch junction-jammers

Barely a month after introducing a pilot scheme, Brussels mobility minister Pascal Smet has said that painted markings in junctions are not sufficient enough to prevent motorists from blocking them. He now intends to install traffic cameras to catch and fine drivers.

The problem relates to motorists who enter a junction without having a clear exit and are then stranded on the junction when the light changes, blocking traffic from the cross streets.

Many other countries use the cross-hatch painted box to indicate the junction zone, which may not be entered unless the motorist can get all the way across. Last month, Smet announced the start of a test project on three busy Brussels junctions: Sainctelette, Troon and Kunst-Wet, together with a slogan in English – Don’t block the box.

The practice of junction-jamming is already illegal in Belgium as elsewhere, but motorists here, noted Smet, are very casual about it. Drivers have to be informed of the meaning and importance of the measure, he said, which needs to be enforced by regular police checks and legal sanctions.

“It’s difficult to say if the yellow lines make a difference,” he told the Brussels parliament’s infrastructure committee this week. “If the police are present, drivers observe the rule. But the pressure of traffic in some places is so heavy that drivers feel forced to drive onto the junction all the same, which ends up being blocked.”

He has now given the order to Bruxelles Mobilité to investigate traffic enforcement cameras.

Photo: Ivan Put/De Standaard