22.2.08

The new bus lane in route d'Esch

Some facts about the new most discussed bus lane in route d'Esch:
1. When you have two lanes of traffic and you decide that one of them is going to be used only by buses (and by bicycles, it seems), you can not expect that all the drivers that were previously using that lane will leave their car at home and jump into the next bus. You can expect bigger traffic jams in the only lane now open for private cars.
2. We have a diesel pollution problem (in Luxembourg, high levels of nitrogen dioxide, in Brussels, fine particles: that's the geography of money - new diesel cars with particle filters here, old diesel cars without particle filters in Belgium - both very polluting and bad for your lungs, although "environmental-friendly" and government-supported because of the lower levels of CO2).
3. When you have a pollution problem, you can not expected the average citizen to decide on his own to park his new flashy just-bought-in-the-AutoFestival-diesel-burning bagnole and take the bus or the train, because he wants to show it to all his workmates and neighbours, and taking the bus or the train is soooo working class (and we are not working class, nor immigrants, we are transfrontaliers, and expatriates).
4. You can only rely on the City Council to take the good decision of imposing bus lanes, and forcing a lot of us to use public transportation. That's what they were elected for: to implement their decisions and their political program.

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