Walloon Minister for Mobility Philippe Henry wants people to keep working from home after the lockdown ends because of the positive impact on traffic and on the climate.

As a result of the lockdowns, there is significantly less traffic on the roads due to a ban on unnecessary displacements, and pollution has gone down all over Europe. Henry wants this trend to continue. “If we reduce the number of cars on the road by 25%, there would be no more congestion,” he said, adding that it would help reduce CO2 emissions.

“This crisis should allow us to rethink our way of working,” he said to L’Echo. “We should take advantage of an extreme crisis to do things differently. We need a new, radical approach.”

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The minister will set up a dedicated task force to boost teleworking in Wallonia after the measures against the new coronavirus (Covid-19) are lifted. The task force will be made up of workers and companies’ representatives as well as key players in mobility and the rural sector. “I expect this task force to formulate suggestions for politicians as well as for enterprises,” Henry said.

The number of teleworkers in Belgium has quadrupled due to the lockdown measures, Acerta Consult had found. In Flanders, structural traffic jams have disappeared and rush hour has significantly improved due to the lockdown measures, it was reported on Tuesday.

Jason Spinks

The Brussels Times