The principles have been fixed, but the details of the scheme are still a topic of debate. What are those principles? Both cyclists and motorists will receive commuting mileage allowances, although motorists will have to pay for parking. Exactly how much is still unknown, but the further away from the university you live, the lower the cost.
At the moment, the university is still working out the details of the scheme, set to go into effect more than a year from now, in January 2027. The first scheme to be discussed by the Local Consultative Body this coming December will be the commuting scheme, followed later by the parking policy and the bicycle compensation scheme.
Far from perfect
Communication about the policy has been far from perfect, according to the Local Consultative Body. A message posted to UMployee in early September caused confusion. Although a careful reader might have noticed that nothing had been confirmed and the exact policy details were still being worked out, many people took the message to mean “it was a fait accompli”, they said. “It looks like the Local Consultative Body has already agreed to everything.”
An article by Observant, published a day after the message on UMployee, also gave that impression, because in it, the project leader said he had managed to get the mobility policy through the participation council. Incorrectly. Both the Local Consultative Body and the University Council say they have not agreed to anything yet.
15 different people
President Rianne Letschert promised to pay more attention to communication. She agreed with the suggestion by Mark Govers (representative of the AC/FBZ union), to have any message posted to UMployee checked by the relevant party of the message (read, the Local Consultative Body), on one condition: “I don’t want to have to talk to 15 different people, there should be a single representative.”