Earlier this week, we launched the Moment app to measure feelings of safety in Brussels in the moment.
The media coverage has been extensive and substantive. RTBF described the project as “Sociology 2.0”, highlighting the innovative use of smartphone and location data to measure an important societal issue: perceived safety in public space. EOS Magazine referred to it as an “innovative citizen science project”.
This focus is crucial. Feelings of safety directly shape behaviour. Previous research shows that two out of three women in Brussels regularly avoid certain streets or choose to get off earlier or later at a MIVB station for safety reasons. Conversations with residents confirm the same pattern: taking detours, adjusting travel times, making phone calls “just in case”, or avoiding specific places altogether.
Perceived safety depends on who you are, where you are, and when you are there. The same street may feel different during the day than at night. A busy platform during rush hour is fundamentally different from that same platform late in the evening. Traditional surveys that ask general, retrospective questions often miss this situational and temporal context. They capture an average perception, while safety in reality is dynamic and relational.
For that reason, we measure safety on the spot, at specific locations and times, through the app. By linking short questionnaires to real-time location data, we aim to capture the interaction between person, place, and time. This is precisely why a new methodological approach is needed.
More about the project and its broader societal context can be heard in the podcast In Brussel, where BRISPO member Petrus te Braak speaks with Margot Otten about perceived safety in Brussels.
The episode is available via Bruzz and on Spotify.
Those who would like to contribute to this citizen science project can participate by downloading the app here.
