Bicycle Facilities (Farrel, Bridges, West)

Cycle Tracks

Cycle tracks allow for relatively high-speed cycling in dense urban and suburban areas, but more importantly, are found where automobile traffic is too fast for non-separated facilities to be considered safe. Cycle tracks appear around Delft in many areas: along canals, near the university, and next to multi-lane roads.

The most interesting cycle track site we visited was stop A-2 on Monday, Popsouwselaan. Running north to south, the right of way was extremely wide and served virtually all modes of transportation. The very middle lanes were dedicated to trams and busses. Outside of this, one way single land roads accommodated car travel. Beyond this are two-way cycle tracks on each side of the road. Finally, sidewalks allowed for pedestrian travel.

Peter Furth explained how this area used to have two car travel lanes in each direction and has since experienced a serious road diet. He pointed out a very interesting fact: although the area north of this intersection has two lanes, it also has a streetlight. When the roadway here was reduced to one lane, efforts were also made to reduce stopping points for cars. Thus, even though lanes were reduced to half, actual road capacity is actually higher on the one-way section than it is on the two-way section since it is less constrained by stoplights (which were replaced by roundabouts). Visually, this one-way road appeared rather narrow, helping to reduce care speed, but it actually measured at 10.4 ft; the widest busses are only 8.5 ft, and therefore a bus (or more likely, a wide emergency vehicle) could technically fit here.

In general, cycle tracks like this will virtually always require reducing either automobile lanes or lane width. In particular, this site required a complete overhaul. There is no doubt it was a complex undertaking. Any projects of this nature will thus be relatively expensive and more disruptive than some other treatments, at least when applied retroactively to existing streets.

This cycle track felt relatively safe, at least away from conflict points. Allowing two-way traffic on both sides of the road means that cyclists are not forced to cross a very long and busy street to reach their destination. Still, at conflict points, particularly the cross street we stopped at, the cycle track was not without stress. Many cars passed both north-south and east west. Moving through the intersection itself, with a variety of car and bike travelers, was not easy. Still, this stress was not enough for me to feel unsafe, and when traveling on the north-south section, separation from cars made cycling virtually stress free. The two-way roundabout further south also felt incredibly safe and easy to maneuver, at least in light of the large amount of conflict points it contained.

Bicycle Highways (Stand-alone bikeways)

Bicycle highways are separate facilities completely segregated from the roadway. The bicycle highway we visited extends east from the suburban outskirts of town. The first portion ran along a rural area, including farmland and a very large plant nursery facility. Further to the east, the bicycle highway begins to run parallel to the automobile highway – N470.

These facilities can serve a variety of purposes (and their corresponding users): recreation, athletic bicycling, and long-distance bicycle commuting. Bicycle highways represent the extremes of both axes of Dutch bicycle design principles; they will be found along the highest speed roadways and have the greatest degree of separation. In this way, they can be considered the logical extension beyond separated cycle-tracks.

Bicycle highways live up to their name for bicycle users: they are the widest type of facility (our measurement today showed 14-ft total), they have a minimal amount of stops and contact points, and thus allow the highest cycling (and scootering) speeds. Just like an automobile highway, they are fully dedicated to cycling; the site visited today had no space whatsoever given to pedestrians. The most obvious “loser” of these facilities would be pedestrians, as they have no space to move along. However, bicycle highways are also located along long distances in less dense areas. It is unlikely there would be many pedestrians traversing these routes even with sidewalks. Another tradeoff is the large amount of right-of-way they consume for a single mode.

In retrofitting an older automobile highway, the large width of these paths might represent a challenge if the highway had inadequate shoulders to give to bicycles. Surely, there have been cases where some car lanes were either narrowed or removed entirely (i.e., reducing a 2+2 highway to a 1+1 highway) – in such cases, automobile users are losing something. I would imagine they are not difficult to plan in new construction. Highspeed roadways, especially in the Netherlands, will never be in a dense area. Although bike highways run generally parallel to the roadway, there is no reason they must run directly along it the entire way. In fact, it is more enjoyable if the bicycle highway meanders further into the countryside, creating a more enjoyable ride for cyclists. I would anticipate the biggest challenge, considering the demands of space, would be acquiring land on which to build these facilities.

Personally, this was the most enjoyable facility I rode on. I felt completely safe and comfortable cycling at full speed. Even when encountering other cyclists, there was more than enough space to pass or avoid each other safely without lowering speed. Even though automobiles were traveling faster than at any other location, they were so thoroughly separated as to not concern me at all. Based on the number of children and families I saw along the bike highway, it appears most cyclists share my opinion.

Bike Lanes

Bike Lanes in a nutshell are one way bicycle lanes on the right hand side of a road that have no physical protection from vehicles travelling by, however are protected by the solid line on the road. This feature has been used in the US as a main mode of trying to include bicycles into traffic. However, these lanes do not top the list of most comfortable riding and present some logistical problems. This feature in the Netherlands as a default is a 1+1 road with no parking, however streets that already include this feature that are 1+1 with low turnover parking or 2+2 are grandfathered into this category. 

The perks of these lanes are that they are inexpensive to construct, are fast to construct, and take little upkeep. The downside is that they are one way only, do not provide a very comfortable ride, and require using pocket left turns. These are the primary bike format used in the US and the US roads provide even higher risks. The picture below shows a similar style to many of the American bike lanes here in the Netherlands. It includes inside parking on a two lane road, with the signature red pavement showing where the bike lane is.

While riding along the path shown in the picture, I didn’t feel quite as comfortable as being on a separated path, however I always felt safe. The parking takes very little room, just 6.5 ft, the bike lane roughly 5 ft and the vehicle lane 10 ft. These dimensions, while small for American roads, felt safe here. However, an important aspect is the speed. The speed limit here was just 30 km/h (under 20 mph). In the US these types of speeds would generally only be used in a school zone, and only be enforced during peak school hours. By enforcing the lower speeds, the Dutch have created the ability to compact cars and bikes together using little space but keep the roads safe and efficient.

The means to keep speeds low is carried out through self enforcing roads. Two of the main deterrents to cars going fast at sections along this road were a large speed barrier which did not allow cars to fly by it, and speed bumps to slow cars from being able to gain too much speed. The key to this system working is that people are always in a rush while driving, and expecting people to drive slow is simply wishful thinking. However with the numerous deterrents to speeding, people will maintain a speed near 30 kph, and thus keep the road safe for cyclists.

One of the major challenges with bike lanes are their method for left turns. This is likely the hardest part to replicate in the US. When taking a left turn, the bicyclist is required to join traffic and cross into the righthand side of the left turn lane, and upon crossing the intersection rejoin the bike lane on the follow street. I witnessed a mom with her two relatively young children making this maneuver and while sounding dangerous it actually went quite smoothly. There is an embedded understanding of bike culture here in Holland and cars and bikes form together seamlessly.

At the end of the day, these lanes are an antiquated form of bicycle travel. While nearly 5,000 km of these lanes exist in the Netherlands, no new ones are built. They do generally work well, and any conflict points with cars, whether by right or left turn, tend to flow smoothly, however they would not be the best takeaway for bicycle travel in the Netherlands.

Quietways

              A quietway is a bike route, that shares the road with cars, and has low car traffic. Often in the US, these can be found on streets one block away from arterials. The purpose of the quietway is to create a through path for bikes, but not for cars. These are conducted through creating alternate one ways with contraflow, streets that lack through traffic except for bikes, and providing protection when crossing main streets. A successful quietway must also be well signed, as the most well signed route may be the main arterial. When done properly, quietways are one of the better and cheaper forms to facilitate bicycle traffic.

              The main challenge to creating a successful quietway is that bikes need a direct route that has low car traffic. If the route is not direct, the bike will either not use it or the bike will often become lost. However, if the route is direct, non local cars are likely to drive it, defeating the purpose of the quietway. The two best forms to achieve this are by creating alternate one ways, where bikes run contraflow to traffic. This eliminates through traffic from cars, as only local drivers want to navigate that maze. This provides low amounts of vehicles as well as slower vehicles. Both make a good quietway comfortable and safe. The second main way to perturb driving traffic is to make the road a dead end. This eliminates through traffic while the bikes may carry on. Eliminating through traffic is the biggest key to the successful quietway.

              The next main factor in a successful quietway is to make sure it is well signed. Main arterials often are well signed and take direct routes, while their accompanying quietways are left short. If the quietway does not provide a direct route, or is not well signed, cyclists might choose to ride on the more dangerous but more direct arterial. The simple solution is to provide adequate signs and street paint to inform the rider to important turns and locations along the road.

              The following key component in creating an enduring and successful quietway is to avoid many stops. No cyclist wants to stop every 2-3 minutes along their ride. At major intersections, this is handled by creating stops for the large vehicle street. While in the US cars are often given the priority to bikes, creating a handful of these stops can facilitate a successful quietway. One of these stops occurred along the bicycle highway where the main street was forced to stop for oncoming bicycle traffic. This method with quietways ensures an easy ride, thus increasing the use of the quietway by cyclists.

              Quietways when done properly are near the top of best bike routes and most comfortable ones. They take a little bit of work to make them effective. Many things like directness of route or proper signage might not already exist, as well as potential extra infrastructure like bridges for obstacles in the way. But when completed correctly, these provide a highly safe and effective bicycle route. Depending on obstacles and needed infrastructure, these can range from among the cheapest to most expensive.

Advisory Lane 

The CROW Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic English translation calls this a ‘Bicycle Street with Carriageway Separation and Cyclists at the sides of the Carriageway’. FHWA’s Small Town and Rural Multimodal Networks guide calls the treatment an ‘advisory shoulder’. FHWA has approved them as ‘experimental’ in the United States.

The red colored pavement on either side are ‘suggested’ bike lanes, and the middle lane is the ‘car’ lane. These roads can be one or two-way for motorized traffic. Cars can travel either direction in the middle, in most cases, and bikes have one way lanes in each direction. When two cars are traveling on the road, they may verge over into the bikes lanes in order to pass each other. Cars may also move into the bike lane on one side to pass a cyclist in the opposite bike lane. Bikes have priority at intersections. There is usually no parking on roads with advisory bike lanes. Advisory bikes lanes are safe and comfortable for cyclists, and the bike lanes make clear to motorists that bikes should be expected on the road. Speed bumps or other traffic calming can be used to make the route less attractive for driving. This sort of infrastructure is suitable for ADT between 2000-5000 motor vehicles per day. (CROW lists a cycling ADT but this is something that is only rarely available to planners in the US at this time)

The bike lanes are roughly six feet wide, and the car lane is about 8 or 9 feet wide. The CROW calls for 2-meter cycle lanes at either side.  We observed a version of this treatment in Utrecht with only a 2 meter center ‘lane’ for cars. The bike lanes are paved in a color which is contrasting to the car space in the center. In Holland, when there is a lane indicated, this is often red. There is no law regarding the color of bike lanes, but over the years Dutch road users have become accustomed to red pavement as an indicator of bike space. 

There is no law stating that if there is red pavement, cyclists receive priority or that cyclists must ride in that space, but in Holland, red pavement has been the space for bikes for many years so the public is accustomed to expected cycling traffic where there is a red lane.

Maximum vehicle speed should be around 30 kph, according to the CROW, or less than 25 mph in US terms. Slow traffic speed allows for cautious and courteous passing movements in the multimodal environment. Notably, the segment we observed in Delftgauw had a posted speed limit of 30 kph on the built up side, but at the transition point changed to a 60 kph speed limit.

We witnessed all modes of traffic using the advisory bike lane treatment in Delftgauw, including an 18-wheeler semi-truck. There was consistent bike and car traffic on this stretch, and it did appear to be low stress in terms of bikes sharing the road with cars. Despite the higher posted speed limit, most of the motorized traffic was traveling at slower travel speeds. Coming into town from the rural area, as the posted speed limit changed from 60 to 30, several traffic calming measures were in place, such as signage, large painted speed limit indicators on the roadway, trees alongside the roadway and even in the roadway to create a narrowing effect.

There were residences and farms along the Schimmelpennick van der Oyeweg. Given the presence of the farms, it is likely that some heavier equipment and/or large truck traffic would be more frequent on the route. It might feel somewhat unsafe riding a bike along the road at the same time as some of those users.

Service Road

This is an example of a service road in Delftgauw, along the Zuidpoldersingel.

Service roads are auxiliary roads which run alongside a major road. Service roads can carry bike traffic, and are similar to bike streets. Service roads need traffic calming, to ensure slow traffic speeds. Network connectivity should exist for cycling but not for auto traffic using service roads. Permeable barriers for cyclists and pedestrians can allow through traffic for cyclists and not motorists. It should be made clear that auto through traffic belongs on the main road, where as bike through traffic is more comfortable on the service road. Service roads should have very low automobile travel speeds, 30 kph or less. Parking can exist on service roads but must not interfere with bicycle traffic.

Neither the STAR guide nor the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide mention service roads. The CROW Manual addresses service roads briefly, stating that they can be used in built up or non-built up areas, and describes them as functionally a residential street or a bicycle street. The CROW suggests not striping bike lanes on service roads, and points out that parking is often found on service roads, cautioning that this could run counter to providing a comfortable and safe cycling facility.

Service roads are found in the United States, but are not commonly understood as bike facilities. American cyclists might use service roads because they are less busy in many cases, but we do not tend to address cycling network connectivity in the same manner as the Dutch, and our service roads are more likely than not unconnected links in the networkIn the Netherlands, however, service roads can act as helpful connecting links in a network, or enable cyclists to access residences or services along the service road. A series of service roads are very similar to bike boulevards.

Cyclists could use this service road to access a residence in this neighborhood, or as a connection between other cycling facilities. In the example we experienced, the service road provided access to homes along the road but also served as a north-south connecting street along Zuidpoldersingel running perpendicular to the larger bikeway running east west through the neighborhood. The service road in Delftgauw was found in slightly more suburban setting, as opposed to the city center. Parked cars do exist along the service road, so there is a potential for conflicts there, but the road itself was wide enough, and without any lane striping the cyclists should feel free to ride in any part of the service road. Cyclists received clear priority for crossing the larger through road, and we even saw a rare stop sign for cars at the bike crossing.