This vademecum “Accessible Public Domain” provides guidelines to come into a public domain that is safe and comfortable for everyone to use, with additional attention to persons with disabilities.
The mobility publications were published earlier “Vademecum Pedestrian Facilities” and “Vademecum Bicycle Facilities”, which form a guideline for the (re)design and maintenance of facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. The three handbooks together provide an interpretation of the basic work “Traffic facilities in the built environment”. That basic work contains the general ones rules for the organization of the public domain.
The vademecum consists of 2 chapters: “Design criteria for an integral accessible public domain” and “Maintenance and site signalling”. For each chapter you will receive a summary of the relevant guidelines, followed by a brief explanation of the terms used (what?), an explanation of the necessity of the guideline (why?) and explanation of how the guidelines can be applied in practice (how?).

The brochure “Towards an Accessible Public Domain” deals with accessibility issues in a broader planning, traffic and policy framework, and should be read together with the Vademecum Accessible public domain. Accessibility is evaluated by looking at the entire chain of accessibility using the principle of the five B’s: Available, Reach, Enter, Visitor and use, Understand. Each B stands for a criterion that must be filled in positively. Only if all five criteria pass a good evaluation can it be decided that that environment, or part of it, is accessible.

The ambition of the strategic pedestrian plan is to turn Brussels into an exemplary pedestrian city by 2040. Not a city with only pedestrians, but a city that always welcomes pedestrians everywhere and invites them to walk. A city in which everyone, regardless of age, gender or background can move freely and autonomously. A city in which people like to walk a lot and which also benefits from it, ecologically, socially and economically.
This brochure discusses various levers to implement this strategic plan.