Brussels has been one of the most progressive European cities in embracing shared mobility, bike lanes, and urban redesign. In this episode, Prabin Joel Jones, CEO of Micromobility Industries & Mayten, sits down with Martin Lefrancq, New Mobility Policy Advisor at Brussels Mobility, to unpack how the Belgian capital went from free-floating chaos to a model for thoughtful regulation, multimodality, and behavior change.

We explore Brussels’ early micromobility boom, the evolution of regulations, the pedestrianization of the city center, tensions with public transport, the new licensing framework, and what the future of urban transport might look like by 2030.

Key Takeaways

- Brussels was one of the first cities to regulate shared mobility back in 2018.

- The city built 40 km of new bike lanes during COVID, permanently reshaping streets.

- Shared scooters once hit 25,000 units — now capped under a structured tender.

- The pedestrian zone near Grand Place became one of Europe’s largest.

- “Mobility Changers” proved behavior change is possible with the right incentives.

- New debate: Should cities tax or support shared micromobility operators?

- By 2030, micromobility will be a permanent part of Brussels’ transport mix.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro: Welcome to the Micromobility Podcast

00:37 – Who is Martin Lefrancq and what does Brussels Mobility do?

01:33 – Why cities and mobility fascinate Martin

02:27 – Martin’s commute: Why he always bikes to work

03:24 – The early boom: Why Brussels became the go-to city for Lime, Bird, and others

04:15 – How the first mobility regulations were created

05:54 – When 25,000 scooters flooded Brussels

07:04 – The logic behind Brussels’ open-door policy for operators

08:20 – COVID, bike lanes, and the acceleration of micromobility

10:54 – How Brussels built 40km of bike lanes in months

12:26 – From crisis to acceptance: How culture around shared mobility shifted

13:45 – Public transport vs micromobility: Competition or complement?

15:34 – Building a multimodal city: The role of Floya and MaaS integration

16:59 – Can shared mobility reduce big transport investments?

18:24 – Is Brussels “car-choked”? Reality vs perception

21:05 – Comparing Brussels and Paris: The pace of transformation

22:45 – The rise of Europe’s largest pedestrian zone

25:44 – Backlash from businesses and how it was managed

30:25 – The political debate around “freedom of mobility”

33:25 – Behavior change: The “Mobility Changers” experiment

34:56 – Why Brussels capped operators and vehicles in 2023

37:56 – Legal battles and reaching a stable landscape

39:36 – How many scooters and bikes Brussels has today

41:13 – Are 3-year licenses too short?

44:11 – Why station-based bikes (Villo) have low utilization

46:43 – The evolution of bike-sharing models

48:38 – Will Brussels move to one unified shared system?

51:16 – Dockless vs station-based: Why the line is blurring

53:36 – Why free-floating parking needs to improve

55:56 – The need for more parking bays across Brussels

56:58 – Should cities subsidize micromobility rides?

58:32 – VAT, taxes, and the fairness problem

1:00:01 – Etterbeek’s proposed tax on shared vehicles

1:02:41 – Misconceptions about “rich” scooter companies

1:04:34 – Looking ahead to 2030: What Martin hopes for Brussels

1:06:04 – Closing thoughts and thanks

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