Free of charge: join a VUB citizen science project and help shape a safer Brussels through real research
Since the study requires downloading an app, and you might think “not another app,” it’s important to know you can stop participating at any time. Still, your experience can make a difference in the long run, helping to make the city you live in at least a little safer. Anyone aged 18 or older who regularly or occasionally moves within the Brussels-Capital Region and has a smartphone can participate. You do not need to be a resident of Brussels. The study is open to all genders.
In Brussels, one research project is trying not just to measure the city, but to capture it as it happens, on the move, in motion, inside the real moments of everyday life. It is called Moment, developed at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in response to a simple but difficult question: how do people actually experience safety in a city? It began with a well-known but uncomfortable reality. In Brussels, women are far more likely than men to change how they move through public space because of safety concerns, choosing different streets, avoiding parks after dark, or adjusting routes as a normal part of daily life.
The project is led by Dr. Petrus te Braak and Prof. Theun Pieter van Tienoven, with the support of Ella Oelbrandt and Dr. Francisca Mullens.
Safety is not stable. It shifts.
Traditional surveys ask people how safe they felt in general terms. Moment does something different. It tries to capture safety as it is happening. The app uses GPS and predefined locations across the city. When a person enters one of these areas at a relevant time, they receive a short question: “How do you feel right now, and why?” There is no need to recall past events or reconstruct memory. Only the present moment matters.
And in that moment, something becomes clear. Safety is not stable. It shifts. The same street can feel ordinary at midday and uncomfortable at night. The place is the same, but the experience is not.
From campus to the whole city
Before the project was expanded across Brussels, it was tested at the VUB campus in Etterbeek, where students and staff used the app in everyday situations. Once the rollout reached the wider city, the first data began to arrive: thousands of entries describing how people feel in specific places at specific times. A pattern quickly emerged. Most responses come during movement, in the morning commute, and in the afternoon, returning home. At night, participation drops, not because experiences disappear, but because the rhythm of the city changes. Another clear feature is who participates. Most users are long-term residents who already know the city well. Their responses show how past experiences continue to shape present behaviour, with certain places avoided or approached differently over time.
Each response becomes part of a larger picture: an anonymous but living map of the city, showing where people feel safe and where they do not, and just as importantly, when those feelings appear.
The feeling of the city exists only in the moment it is lived
According to the official project information and FAQ, Moment is designed as a simple participation system: the app is free to download. Users register with consent and provide basic information. All responses are anonymous and handled according to privacy rules. Participation is voluntary and limited in duration. The goal is to capture fragments of experience that would otherwise disappear without a trace. As data builds up, Brussels begins to appear differently through Moment, not as a map, but as a shifting pattern of human experience, where the feeling of the city exists only in the moment it is lived.
Download the Moment app and log how safe or unsafe you feel in specific places across Brussels.
Image: https://www.moment.brussels/
These publications were produced as part of the Maria Leptin EMBO Fellowship, which allowed us to spend two months exploring the world of science at VUB in Brussels. Importantly, all articles were the result of our own choice of topics and in accordance with our interests.
