The car rules

The Brussels road network is restructured from 1956. Urban motorways, overpasses and tunnels appear in expectation of the Expo 58 and to anticipate the increase of the car population.

The number of cars increases spectacularly. In 1950, 274,000 cars are on the road in the country and in 1962 there are close to a million.

Car park running alongside the Boulevard de l’Impératrice, Brussels, ca. 1958 (period postcard).
Overpass leading to the site of the Expo 58, Square Sainctelette and Boulevard Léopold II, Brussels (period postcard). Dismantled in 1982, it was offered to the Thai government and rebuilt in Bangkok.
The Boulevard du Jardin Botanique, transformed into a highway just before the Expo 58. In the distance, the Social Welfare building, Rue Royale 151-153, Saint-Josse, architect Hugo Van Kuyck, 1956-1957 (Architecture, issue 27, 1959).
Opening of the tunnels of the “little ring”, the motorway ring marking out the city centre, 28 September 1957 (Amsab – Institute of Social History).