Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – During Mobility Week, Team Trottoir surveys Brussels streets to identify obstacles, raise awareness about accessibility, and promote barrier-free sidewalks for the visually impaired, elderly, wheelchair users, and parents with strollers.
As VRT News reported, during Mobility Week, Team Trottoir and other organisations are walking the streets of Brussels to identify obstacles that make moving around the city difficult. They look at broken sidewalks, blocked walkways, dangerous crossings, and other obstacles impacting walking. They report their discoveries back to the public and decision-makers to raise the alarm about the need for safe and equitable streets.
“We do this by going out and identifying obstacles with stickers, because poorly placed cars, bicycles, scooters, garbage bags, billboards, and patios make the sidewalk unsafe and hinder everyone trying to move around,”
Team Trottoir said.
How is Team Trottoir making Brussels streets safer for everyone?
The program also focuses on older residents, wheelchair users, and parents with strollers, and will take place in other cities from September 16 to September 22. Laetitia is one of the founders of Team Trottoir, and is blind herself, and seeks to have more people understand everyday problems disabled people have.
She says that small actions can make a big difference.
“If people simply move their bikes, scooters, or trash cans aside, everyone can get through more easily, and there will be fewer accidents,”
Laetitia explains.
Jana, who is also visually impaired, describes another common obstacle: overgrown hedges.
“Many houses here have hedges, but some grow so far over the sidewalk that there is practically no space to walk,”
she says.
“Because of this, I often have to walk on the street, which is very dangerous every day.”
Xander, who uses a wheelchair, adds that sidewalks are blocked by trash, scooters, electric car cables, and even dog waste.
“If the sidewalk is blocked, I have no choice but to move onto the street in my wheelchair,”
he says.
Team Trottoir is a Brussels-based group that was founded in 2022 and works to identify and remove obstacles that make moving around the city difficult for people with disabilities. Every year, the organisation takes part in European Mobility Week, held from September 16 to 22, to raise public awareness about the need for accessible streets and sidewalks. In 2024, the campaign expanded its focus beyond blind and partially sighted individuals to include elderly people, wheelchair users, and parents with strollers.
