Meanwhile, the use of bicycles has risen strongly, the department said.
Business transport plans are compulsory for all companies employing more than 100 workers on the same site in Brussels. This represents 294,037 persons – 40% of all workers employed in the capital, 66% of whom do not reside in Brussels.
The report is the third on business transport; the first was in 2011 and the second in 2014. It notes that the proportion of people cycling to and from work shot up from 2.8% to 4.5% in six years.
The drop in the percentage of people using their own vehicles between the 1st and 2nd studies, 36.3% and 34.5% respectively) was confirmed in 2017 (34.1%). However, company vehicles’ share of employee traffic went up significantly, from 11.6% in 2014 to 15.8% in 2017.
The mode of transport chosen is closely related to the accessibility of workplaces and workers’ homes. Thus, the share of people using public transport increases in companies located near train and subway stations, reaching up to 80% depending on the company.
Bicycles are used by 8.5% of employees living up to 4km from their jobs, while car use drops to almost 5% when people reside less than 10km from their workplaces.
Almost one-third of employees (32%) telecommuted at least once a week in 2017, up from 16% three years before. This reduced commuting between home and workplace by about 6%.
Jason Bennett
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