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🇧🇪 Belgium /Culture & Society

The alarm rings at 4:30 a.m. for work: Readers share their commuting stories

From VRT NWS · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Belgian employees spend an average of 61 minutes commuting each day, among the longest average commutes in Europe.
  • Readers described their journeys, including one worker who travels three hours each way between Eupen and Brussels.
  • One contributor said congestion reflects too many people using the same roads at the same time, rather than workers living too far from their jobs.

For some Belgian workers, the day starts long before the workday does. One reader, Andreas, travels three hours each way between Eupen and Brussels, turning his commute into a six-hour daily journey.

The experience is far from unique. Belgian employees commute for an average of 61 minutes a day, placing the country among Europe’s leading commuting nations. Readers have responded in large numbers with stories about how long they spend traveling to and from work.

Ellen sees the problem less as a question of distance than of timing and congestion. “We do not necessarily live too far from our work, we simply have too many people on the same road at the same time,” she said.

We do not necessarily live too far from our work, we simply have too many people on the same road at the same time.

— EllenShe explains why Belgian commutes can be so long.
About this summary

Originally published by VRT NWS in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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