[IFV2] A photo report from Brussel and Ghent

For the second International Field Visit organized by Flanders, all the international partners were invited to enter an electric bus, the so called Multiobus, that drove everybody from Brussels to Ghent.

During this silent bus journey Simon Ruyters, environmental policy advisor at the Flemish government, did some explaining about where this bus was constructed and about the barriers and the possibilities of unfolding electric buses in Flanders.

Once arrived in Ghent, the international partners from e-MOPOLI were warmly welcomed in the city hall of Ghent and by the city councilor of mobility Filip Watteeuw.

Then Arne Baert, policy advisor for the City of Ghent presented the current policy of Ghent regarding electric mobility. A third presentation was given by Jeffrey Matthijs, from Autodelen.net.

Autodelen.net is a Flemish network for carsharing companies. Their mission is to maximize the ecological, social and economic benefits of car sharing. He introduced their very inspiring campaign directed to the citizens from Ghent regarding chosing for a car sharing system. They therefor used slogans like “You don’t buy a whole stadion when you want to see your favourite soccer team playing, do you?” trying to draw the line with “Why would you buy a car if you can chose everyday out of a whole range of shared cars?”. He also explained their investment in the so called Mobipoints. These are hubs where all kinds of mobility options come together and where you can easily switch from one modality (e.g. shared car) to another one (e.g. shared bike to enter the city center).

After these presentations the walking tour started. The international visitors stopped at an e-taxy company, called V-tax. Thereafter they were showed around some hubs in the city by Chris de Guytenaer, the owner of an electric carsharing project, called BattMobiel. He explained very well what kind of car sharing concepts work and what doesn’t. He explained that you can even rent a Tesla for 75 euros a day. He also showed their first shared cargobike.