Brussels: research and design for a runner friendly city

Commissioned by Perspective Brussels (Brussels engineering firm), Track conducted a study into the possibilities for rolling out a recreational network for runners and runners. A network of active streets and roads that connect the green spaces of the city. At the suggestion of the Prime Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region, the drafting of an "ideal road map" was approved by the government at the end of December 2020. This will form the basis for consultation with the regional and municipal partners, who will start working on the implementation.

TRACK developed an online map survey, in which approximately 1200 runners from Brussels took part in the spring of 2020. They mapped out both their positive experiences and the bottlenecks they encountered. The runner turns out to be the ideal research participant for devising a more active city; they are perfectly capable of mapping out their experiences. Together they identified more than 2000 'geotags' within all kinds of important urban themes.  

The desired opportunities for improvement turned out to be twofold. On the one hand, the experiences concerned structural urban design; traffic nuisance and road safety, insufficient space on the paths, unpleasant intersections, a lack of green spaces and also the explicit lack of pleasant green connections between existing city parks. 

On the other hand, they pointed to smaller optimizations and desired additions: better and more soft/semi-paved and level surfaces, the lack of (sufficient) lighting, or small supporting facilities such as water taps and signposted walking routes.  

Based on these results, we explained how attractive exercise networks can be designed for various city districts. In the first place through a number of structural transformations of city streets that create pleasant mutual connections between green spaces and surrounding neighbourhoods. These city streets offer space for all moving people; equally for cyclists and ordinary walkers. 

In addition, his proposals were made about the addition of signposted (running) routes, supplemented with public sport-recreational facilities (water taps, urban gyms, playgrounds) and improvements in lighting and path surfaces.

With this, TRACK, on behalf of and in collaboration with Perspective Brussels, took the first steps towards a (running) friendly city.