VUB launches citizen survey on feelings of safety in Brussels
New app Moment charts in real time where, when and why people feel (un)safe on the streets
Brussels, 23 February 2026 - Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) are today launching the citizen survey Moment, an innovative study that uses an app to map the feeling of safety on the streets of Brussels. Anyone who regularly visits the Brussels Capital Region can participate.
With the project, the researchers want to better understand how feelings of safety differ in everyday life: who feels safe or unsafe where and when? These insights should contribute to a safer, more inclusive and accessible city.
More than numbers
Classic crime figures show where facts are happening, but do not tell how people feel in a specific place at a specific time. Yet that feeling of safety strongly influences how residents and visitors move around the city. Research by the Brussels Institute for Social and Population Research (BRISPO) at the VUB now wants to capture those experiences in real time via the app Moment.
Postdoctoral researcher Petrus te Braak: "With Moment, we want to make visible everyday experiences that are difficult to capture in traditional surveys. The app is a scientific instrument, but at the same time accessible and focused on what people really experience in public space."
Moment is a GPS-based app that presents participants with a short questionnaire at more than 100 locations in Brussels. Whenever someone is at such a location, they receive a notification with four short questions about how safe they feel at that moment. The exact locations are not communicated in advance, to avoid participants specifically going to certain places. This method of real-time experience sampling makes it possible to find out not only where people feel (un)safe, but therefore also when and why.
Professor Theun Pieter van Tienoven: "If we want to make our public space safer for everyone, we need to better understand how it is actually experienced. That experience differs depending on the person, the place and the moment. This research helps to map that difference."
Citizen research with impact
The project is deliberately designed as a citizen survey: anyone over 18 who is regularly in Brussels can participate. The results will be able to feed the public debate and policy with concrete insights to make the city safer, for instance through better lighting, more visibility, thoughtful spatial planning or targeted neighbourhood initiatives.
The effective data collection phase, in which participants can register their moments, will run until summer 2026. The exact duration depends on participation rates and data collection needs. Individual participation via the app is time-limited: after four weeks of active logging, participants will receive a message thanking them for their contribution. The responses are processed and collected completely anonymously while respecting the privacy of all participants.
The first results of the survey are expected in 2027.
More information and download the app can be found at: moment.brussels
Contact:
- Petrus Te Braak
- Petrus.Te.Braak@vub.be
- 0471 08 36 25
