Jette empowers street cleaners with electric bikes and smart trailers.

The municipality of Jette, located north of Brussels, stands out with an innovative initiative by equipping its street cleaners with electric bikes, marking a significant step towards sustainable mobility.

Led by Grégory Koko, Head of the Cleanliness Service in Jette, this new approach has several key objectives. Firstly, it aligns with the regional recommendation for municipalities to decarbonize their fleets. Additionally, it fits into the overall sustainability policy of the municipality, aiming to reduce the number of motorized vehicles and promote greener alternatives. Lastly, it reflects a desire to rethink mobility to make the field agents of the public cleanliness service more autonomous and agile in their movements.

Before the introduction of these electric bikes, street cleaners were reliant on a municipality van to change sectors. The new electric bikes not only provide appreciated autonomy but also enable the workers to be more agile in carrying out their tasks, saving valuable time.

This project, subsidized by the Region, came to fruition through collaboration with a Brussels-based start-up specializing in equipping cargo bikes. The result is a unique model, the product of two years of work, featuring a trailer specifically designed for transporting the carts of street cleaners.

According to Michel Martorana, responsible for the municipal fleet in Jette, this trailer has been carefully designed to transport the street cleaners' carts, and extensive maneuverability tests were conducted in close collaboration with the designers of this cargo bike, perfectly tailored to the constraints of the street cleaners' tools.

Five of these innovative cargo bikes are now part of the Jette fleet. This project not only resulted in a reduction of the Jette fleet by 15 vehicles but has also gained traction elsewhere. The municipality's planting service is currently developing an electric cargo bike model compatible with the activities of gardeners.

This pioneering and sustainable initiative from Jette aims to inspire other municipalities, both within the Brussels-Capital Region and beyond.

This initiative relates to measure 27 of the clean.brussels regional strategy : Deploying a strategy for purchasing green goods transport vehicles and green equipment in order to reduce CO2 emissions and other forms of pollution, such as noise, generated by Bruxelles-Propreté and recommending this strategy to the municipalities in Brussels, in order to step up the use of cargo bikes, electric sweepers and low-noise blowers.