Self-driving buses, an American or Chinese story? Take a look at Leuven.

Mobility accounts for 20 to 25 per cent of global CO₂ emissions. As an alpinist, Ann Schoubs sees the impact of climate change up close. In her role as Director General of public transport operator De Lijn, she has therefore made sustainability an absolute priority. “We want to encourage as many people as possible to make the switch – out of their cars and onto the bus, the tram, the bike, on foot, or perhaps one day even a drone.”

“I caught the mobility bug a long time ago. I’ve been Director General of De Lijn since 2021, and before that I spent many years at the Belgian railways. Public transport and sustainability have always been closely linked for me. Public transport is almost sustainable by definition. A car carries at most four or five people – and very often just the driver. A bus carries dozens of passengers, a tram even more. That’s dozens of people who are not sitting alone in their cars, stuck in traffic. Per passenger, emissions are significantly lower on public transport.”

“In my spare time, I’m an alpinist. In the Alps, the impact of climate change is impossible to miss. Abstract studies and statistics suddenly become painfully real. Over the past thirty years, I’ve watched glacier after glacier disappear. Above 4,000 metres, the permafrost is melting and mountain peaks are becoming less stable. It’s a tragedy for alpinist, but it’s also a wake-up call for the planet.”

“Another interest of mine is entomology, the study of insects. There too, I’ve seen the effects of climate change at close hand. You notice a marked decline in hoverflies, which play a crucial role in pollinating plants and flowers. Biodiversity tends to receive less attention, but it is an issue that deserves just as much focus.”

“So you certainly don’t need to convince me of the importance of sustainability. But the impact of public transport goes much further. Whether they’re moving or parked, cars take up an enormous amount of space. Fewer cars means not only lower CO₂ emissions, but also more room for green spaces, public facilities and vulnerable road users. And that’s without even mentioning noise pollution. There are plenty of reasons for us, as a society, to invest in sustainable mobility.”

Greening and attracting

“If we were to replace every petrol and diesel car one for one with electric vehicles, our CO₂ emissions would drop significantly. Air pollution and noise would fall too. But that switch wouldn’t solve congestion or the lack of public space, an electric car still takes up just as much room. What’s more, electric vehicles require large amounts of raw materials, which are finite and difficult to extract in a clean way. Yes, we need electric cars. But at the same time, we also need fewer car journeys overall.”

“At De Lijn, we’re working on both fronts. We’re steadily greening our fleet, with more and more electric buses. They produce zero tailpipe emissions. On top of that, these buses are more comfortable, quieter and more modern. All of this helps to make public transport more attractive to passengers.”

“The biggest sustainability gains don’t come from a greener fleet, but from increasing the share of journeys made by public transport. Fewer cars on the road, more people choosing the bus, tram or train. Alongside sustainability, we therefore also need to focus on flow and comfort. Flanders has set itself the ambition of reaching a 50 per cent modal share for sustainable transport. We will never achieve that goal without a well-developed network of sustainable transport options.”

Heading to work by drone?

In Paris, commuters can now travel to work by cable car. Could this be an idea for De Lijn? “As an alpinist, I’m not a big fan of cable cars. They bring crowds into the mountains,” Schoubs laughs. “But on the ground, why not?”

“I don’t have a crystal ball, so it’s hard to predict how we’ll be getting around in 2050. What I do know is that shared, public transport will still play a central role – in 2050 and well beyond. There will always be a need for accessible, affordable mobility for large numbers of people. That may still mean buses, trams and trains. Or perhaps, by then, drones or small electric aircraft. We’ll just need to make sure we don’t end up shifting traffic jams from the road to the sky.”

Technology is evolving rapidly. Self-driving buses are no longer a distant prospect found only in the US or China, Schoubs stresses. “In Leuven, a pilot project with two buses is already under way. They are learning to operate in a complex environment. When a university lecture hall empties, hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists spill onto the street at once. The algorithms designed to handle such situations are constantly improving. The breakthrough of autonomous transport will come, I’m convinced of that. Perhaps within five years, perhaps within ten.”

“Does that mean our drivers will all become redundant? Of course not. Their roles will change, however. Dispatching will become even more important. There will be a need for stewards to assist and guide passengers. That human dimension is harder for drivers to provide today, especially on busy routes. It’s an interesting paradox: the more advanced the technology becomes, the more space it creates for genuine human interaction.”

Looking beyond our own walls and co-creating solutions

Schoubs links self-driving buses to the broader shift towards demand-responsive, flexible transport. “This evolution is inevitable. Everyone knows that spatial planning in Flanders makes our task more complex. That’s simply the reality we’re working with. It does, however, force us to think very carefully about how we organise public transport. There’s a world of difference in cost efficiency between a bus carrying 100 passengers and one carrying just three. We operate with public funds, and we have a responsibility to use them as wisely as possible.”

“People who live in more remote areas can’t expect a bus stop right outside their front door. Different solutions are needed. In 2024, in less densely populated areas, we made the shift from a traditional fixed service to flexible, on-demand transport. That change triggered a lot of reactions. We see that people still need to make a mental shift themselves, moving away from checking a timetable to thinking about when they need transport and booking it in advance. With smaller buses, we can bring people in more remote areas to the main transport corridors. In that first layer of the network, I see an important future role for autonomous transport.”

“What we really need is more cooperation than we have today. Take one example: the rise of electric bikes has transformed the first and last mile of many journeys. Yet safe bike parking isn’t available everywhere. That’s often beyond our direct control and depends on road authorities. But it is a crucial link in the overall mobility chain. All of these links need to be much better aligned.”

“Thanks to an organisation like The Shift, we’re able to look beyond our own sector, towards other companies and industries. For autonomous buses, we work with an external partner. They bring the technology, while we bring on-the-ground experience and the scale needed to test innovation and roll it out widely. Co-creation and partnerships are the future of sustainability.”

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