Speedbumps on the cycle-path

Something often misunderstood about Dutch cycle-paths are the speed bumps. We don't have any to show you in Assen, but there are a few in Groningen. This is one of them, on my commuting route:

Children riding to school cross a device designed to reduce the speed of a slow class of moped which is permitted to use this cycle-path

What's important to keep in mind is that these things are not to slow down cyclists. Policy requires that cyclists' journeys are made more direct and faster. These are intended to slow mopeds, not bikes, and you find speed-bumps like this on main cycle routes where mopeds are also allowed.

These speed bumps are larger than might be obvious from photos (especially photos with no cyclists in them). I measured this one at 10 m long by 3.75 m (32' x 12 '). 3.75 m is of course also the width of this cycle-path. Note that pedestrians have their own separate path.

A drain built into the gutter prevents
flooding.

The distance between the humps or dips determines the speed at which you can ride over these.

At normal cycling speeds, you barely notice that you've ridden over a speed-bump like this. If you cycle faster, then you do need to be aware of them.

I've found that 35 km/h is on the edge of being uncomfortable over this speed-bump. That's quite typical. I guess at that sort of speed the speed-bump ought to warn me as well as the mopeds about the upcoming road junction (behind the camera).

Note also the lighting to preserve social safety at night-time. The upcoming tunnel, which gives cyclists a short-cut under the railway line, is always lit.

Another set of speed-bumps at the junction of two main cycle-paths in Groningen. You can see this speed bump in action, slowing mopeds, in a video here

Bromfietsen and death
It is quite often the case that people from outside the Netherlands, not to mention those born and bred here, greatly overestimate the danger posed by bromfietsen and snorfietsen - the small mopeds / scooters which are allowed on some cycle-paths.

There are two classes of mopeds. The slow ones can travel at up to 25 km/h, the same speed as an electrically assisted bicycle, and don't require the rider to wear a helmet. These are allowed on the cycle-paths in just the same way as are electric assisted bicycles. The faster mopeds are limited to 45 km/h and require the rider to wear a helmet. These are not allowed on urban cycle-paths but are allowed on some rural cycle-paths, where they occasionally provide entertainment for faster cyclists.

How many are there ?
It's also worth reflecting on how few mopeds there are. Due to being noisy and smelly and attracting attention as well as criticism, people often greatly overestimate the number of mopeds in the Netherlands. Actually their numbers are much smaller than people think.

1. At the main railway station in Groningen which currently has parking for more than 11000 bicycles, there is space provided for only about 10 mopeds.
2. In the most remote suburb of Assen, where for every 100 people there are 116 bicycle trips per day, just 3 trips per day are made by moped.
3. In a video which shows cyclists crossing a bridge, one moped makes more noise than several hundred bikes

Mopeds are about as common as bicycles are in the UK or USA. They are exposed to much the same bias against them, including claims that they are dangerous, as are bicycles in the UK or USA.

Who rides mopeds ?

Mopeds are largely ridden by elderly people who generally ride responsibly. In general mopeds are not considered to be particularly aspirational and they're not really very fashionable. This is reflected in their relatively low numbers. You'll rarely see mopeds parked outside a school which caters for higher educational standards so there's a degree of snobbery about who might be seen on a moped. In some areas they're ridden more often by immigrants so we also can't rule out a degree of casual racism.

Mopeds ridden by teenagers are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not always ridden responsibly. Teenagers also quite often make simple alterations to the machines which remove the speed restrictions (similar models are sold in other countries without the speed restriction devices fitted here). This is quite a good way to get pulled up by the police and the machines can be confiscated as a result.

In the Netherlands, moped riders are an out-group just as cyclists are elsewhere and they are subject to similar prejudice.

How lethal are they ?
How lethal are these mopeds ? Almost certainly less so than you think.

I've not been able to find any data to support the hypothesis that injuries due to badly ridden mopeds are a really major health issue in this country. As Toby Sterling put it, "scooter deaths (amazingly!) were a rounding error." as well as pointing out that you are "more than twice as likely to be murdered in Amsterdam than killed while riding your bike." and that as the US murder rate is four times that of the Netherlands you are "certainly more likely to be murdered while living in the United States than to die while biking in Amsterdam."

Note that Amsterdam is not all of the Netherlands. It's the largest city and quite busy and in fact it's probably one of the most dangerous parts of the country with regard to mopeds as well as other dangers. Most of the country, including Assen where we live, has a far smaller "problem" due to mopeds.

Something to complain about
To summarise, mopeds are one of the things that people get upset about in the Netherlands. But you have to put this in context. This country is very safe and there is very little to get upset about. A bit of perspective is required. What is complained about here are things that would not be complained about elsewhere. In fact, I'd go further than that: the Dutch quite often complain about things which in other nations might be a reason for boasting. You're not actually at any great danger from mopeds even though they are a nuisance and they are disliked by so many people. Nevertheless, mopeds need some control because this has become a subjective safety issue and I'd not suggest that other nations follow the Dutch example of allowing mopeds of any class onto cycle facilities because of that subjective safety issue.

Counting bikes in Groningen

The moment that a cyclist is counted on a cycle-path in Groningen

In order to gather good statistics on cycling rates, there are many cycle counters in the Netherlands. All around the country, small grey boxes are chained to lamp-posts, a rubber lead from them stretching across the adjacent cycle path.

The boxes count cyclists who pass over the lead. They're left in place for a year, and the cycle count for the route is given as the number of times that the box has counted a bike, divided by 365. The counts produced are a true average over the whole year, not the result of counting on a sunny day in September just after the students have returned.

Any automated count like this has a margin of error. The boxes will always miss some cyclists. For instance, when cyclists pass side by side (even four abreast isn't all that uncommon with school-children), only one will be counted. When there is ice or snow, or perhaps due to leaves in Autumn, the box will also miss some bikes. However, the raw data is used because by consistently counting in the same way, figures are collected which can be compared from year to year. This is not a marketing exercise. There are no signs on the streets telling people how many have been counted.

This video has explanatory captions which are visible only if you view it on a computer. You won't get to see the point of the video on a mobile device.

The route shown in the photo and video is Zonnelaan in Groningen, where on average over 14000 cyclists pass each day. The busiest street which is currently counted in Groningen is Antonius Deusinglaan with over 19000 cyclists per day. These are large numbers for a city of just 190000.

Due to the high level of cycling all the way across the Netherlands, even small cities manage impressive counts. For instance, even though Assen's population is just 67000, an average of almost 9000 cycles per day pass through Nieuwe Huizen.

High counts are not in themselves a measure of success
Very high counts are often the result of a funneling effect where cyclists are forced to all go along the same route because of a lack of alternatives. Due to the cycle network in the Netherlands being designed as a very dense grid of high quality facilities it is usually possible to find a direct route which is not overly busy as a result of funneling. Zonnelaan also features in a later blog post showing how the local government has worked to reduce the number of people taking this route by making a faster parallel route known to students who made up much of the cycle traffic along this road.

Den Bosch becomes Netherlands' "Fietsstad 2011"

Updated with a video of the celebrations!

's-Hertogenbosch (a.k.a. Den Bosch) won the honour title 'Fietsstad 2011' or 'Cycling City 2011' in the election organised by the Dutch Cyclists' Union. The expert jury was unanimous in its decision. Last August, the city had been selected as one of five nominees, which were in turn selected from a long list of 19 cities that had entered the competition.

School children with the award on the steps of city hall:
signs with the title "Cycling City 2011"

The director of the Fietsersbond (Cyclists' Union) states the following: "In recent years 's-Hertogenbosch has given cycling an enormous boost in a short time with a lot of energy, ambition, creativity and money. That is very good for a city in the South of the Netherlands where cycling levels on average are lower than in the rest of the Netherlands." The Jury was also very positive about how cycling facilities were integrated in the historical centre of the city.

The award ceremony took place at City Hall in ’s-Hertogenbosch. In their speeches the jury and the director praised the city for their efforts to stimulate cycling. From the results in the short time it was obvious to them that this was a deliberate decision by the local government. The jury found it especially good that the city listens to the wishes of the citizens, even children could give their input about the cycling facilities around their schools. In stead of trying to change behaviour of cyclists by educating and training them, Den Bosch decided to facilitate what cyclists apparently want: if they all ride agaist traffic it proves better to make the cycle path wide enough for two way traffic, rather than to try and stop them from doing it. From a mediocre cycling city Den Bosch has now become a rising star that shot up to the top of the list.

For subtitles in English click CC.

It was a fortunate coincidence that a delegation of Velo-city was also present. Today of all days they visited the city to investigate the candidacy of 's-Hertogenbosch to organise Velo-city 2013 (bidbook in English).
I have informed you about the recent very positive developments in the cycling infrastructure and climate of the city on several occasions.

When 's-Hertogenbosch was announced to be one of the nominees I made a video to support the city. One of the jury members made public that she was impressed by it. I would like to think that it helped my hometown just a little to win the title...

* There is an old Dutch children's song titled  'That (party) goes to Den Bosch'. I imagine the jury singing it all the way to Den Bosch...



Amsterdam Cycle Paths

Whenever you see images of Amsterdam it is mostly of the historic city centre. Yes those pretty canals with their beautiful 17th century houses are what defines Amsterdam, but passed the ring of canals there is a large and much lesser known part of this vibrant city. When it comes to cycling infrastructure that rest of Amsterdam really has a lot more to offer than the traffic calmed city centre.

On September 30th last, I rode a bicycle through Amsterdam for the very first time in my life. It had just never come to it. With the help of OV-fiets and because I wanted to film both Nescio Bridge and Berlage Bridge (you saw those video’s earlier), I finally rode through the city in which my father’s father was born.


Well known junction design, with the distinctive traffic island,
is also common in Amsterdam.
More info in an earlier blog post.

To be honest, riding in Amsterdam wasn’t very special. Cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands is very similar wherever you ride. After over 30 years of experience a standard has grown which is widely used throughout the country. Just as there is a standard way of building motorways with similar exits etc. that is widely accepted as the safest way to build motorways, the Netherlands has developed a way to build cycling infrastructure, that is widely acknowledged to be the safest way to build it. This leads to very similar junctions and paths which is also in line with one of the pillars of Dutch infrastructure design: road design should be instantly recognized by road users to increase safety.

My ride in Amsterdam and the parts in green that can be seen in the video.
Link to the map.

In order for you to follow where I rode, there is also a Google map with links to the corresponding time frames in the video. This was asked for the recent Maastricht video, so I thought it would be good to have for this video too.

Motor car madness. A warning from 40 years ago

This film was made by Alan Wakeman in 1970. Just like the New Scientist article from 1981 which I featured a few weeks ago, this shows that there have always been people who can see the problems that we face. Unfortunately they both also demonstrate that those who can see the problems are often not listened to.

Alan's work has continued right up to the current day with a recent proposal for improvement to policies in London to result in each individual village of London regaining its character.

Retrofitting sanity to residential streets - Woonerven

Explanatory captions on this video are visible only if you view it on a computer and not on a mobile device.
The Woonerf or "Living Street" is a design for residential streets which puts people first. I've written about streets designed and built specifically as woonerven before, but the streets in this video are different. This time you see some of the many streets in the Netherlands which originate from long before the advent of the woonerf, but into which these principles have been incorporated.

The speed limit is "walking pace", but the main reason that such streets are pleasant to live in is that they simply don't work as through roads so the only vehicles you'll see here are those which belong to people who live in the street. You're not going to make any journey quicker by driving through here instead of on the main road. Note that they're also not through routes by bicycle. A woonerf is for living in. It's not a main route for anyone.

Often, people complain that Dutch solutions to creating a cycling and people friendly street-scape might take too much room. This is a myth. In these examples, much has been achieved in very narrow streets and without re-arranging existing buildings. The important thing is to distinguish between where people live and where suitable places are for through journeys to be made.


A correspondent in the comments wondered about how nice it might be if cars that people owned were parked at the edge of the development and therefore not in the streets where people live. This is difficult to achieve with housing which already exists, but there is an example of a newer (1980s) development in Assen where this was done:

Grotere kaart weergeven
The problem with this is that people like to be able to see their car from their home. Newer developments have not copied this style.

The most dangerous junctions in London and in The Netherlands

Tomorrow, the 12th of November 2011, is the day of the tour of the ten most dangerous junctions in London led by Charlie Holland. I can't be in London for that tour, but urge people who are there to take an interest.

London has a rising cycle casualty rate and Londoners find the experience of cycling to be increasingly scary (this is the subjective safety problem about which I've often written). The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, responded to recent calls for improved safety at the most dangerous junction in London, Elephant and Castle (89 cyclist injuries in two years) by suggesting that conditions are fine "if you keep your wits about you". This is a classic example of the fallacy which I call "I cycle, so you could cycle too". It's not a reasonable response. It's not applicable to the majority of the population.

There is already one invitation out for Boris Johnson to go and ride with the group in London tomorrow. I'd like to extend a second invitation to Boris. If he would like to come here and take a look, I'll quite happily show him what well designed infrastructure for cycling looks like. He won't see anything which looks quite like this does:

Elephant and Castle - the most dangerous junction for cyclists in London. A large roundabout with buildings in the middle. View Larger Map

Which lane would you pick to make a right turn ? View Larger Map

It seems that there is still a struggle ahead in London. The city seems unwilling to change its direction without a fight. While they say they are "working flat out to deliver" better safety for cyclists in the city, it's really more of the same as has been promised for the last thirty years.

The "action" that is planned is on a list predominantly of statements involving "awareness", "guidance", "training", "calling for more more to be delivered". What is really needed are fixes to the truly dreadful infrastructure of the city. This means more than adding a few advanced stop lines (a type of infrastructure so outdated that we don't have any left in Assen) and mirrors. It's not difficult to see why some people believe it's time to get angry.

By way of comparison, what is the most dangerous junction in the Netherlands ?
I recently discovered that the most dangerous junction in the whole of the Netherlands is in Groningen. There have been 14 incidents causing injury at this junction in the last three years. Those are figures not just for cyclists, but for all modes. Note that this is the worst junction in the whole country, and also that these are numbers for a period of three years. By comparison, Elephant and Castle's 89 injuries have been over two years, and these are just the injuries to cyclists. We don't know how many people were injured using other modes of transport. There is a huge difference between these two.

Like Elephant and Castle, the most dangerous junction in the Netherlands is also a large roundabout with buildings in the middle. However, cyclists have separate paths here, the roads have fewer lanes, the speed limit is lower and the accident rate is also very much lower even though far more cyclists ride here than at Elephant and Castle. View larger map

And what does the most dangerous junction in the Netherlands look like ?
The most dangerous junction in the Netherlands is busy for cyclists as over 14000 people ride along the Korreweg each day. I made a video. :

The explanatory captions which explain the problems with this junction are only visible if you play the video on a computer and not on a mobile device.

You can also take a look around the junction yourself by using Google Maps. How does this compare with the Streetview of Elephant and Castle ?

For the Netherlands, this is very substandard. There were 39 reported collisions here between 2007 and 2012. Show larger map

This junction has quite comprehensive cycle-paths and lanes in all directions, and motor traffic proceeds mostly at very moderate speeds. Compared with many other countries, this might initially not look bad at all. It certainly doesn't look anything like so daunting as Elephant and Castle.

Actually, nowhere that cyclists go in the Netherlands ever looks remotely like this huge junction at Elephant and Castle, or any of the other 9 junctions on today's ride in London. Such junctions, where they existed, have all been redesigned some years ago. London could have done this too by now, had they started taking notice thirty years ago.

I can imagine that some readers from outside the Netherlands will be surprised that this is the most dangerous junction. While it doesn't look as good as many of the other junction designs on this blog, it doesn't really look all that bad either. Perhaps in other countries it might be seen as a success story. And actually, in one sense this is a success story. The most dangerous road junction in the Netherlands is responsible for just 14 injury incidents for all modes of transport in three years.

An explanation of what is wrong here
This junction design doesn't meet current standards. It is not designed with sustainable safety principles in mind: it doesn't explain itself well, but confuses people using it, so they make mistakes.

We feature the most dangerous junction in
the Netherlands on our study tours. No
white-wash here - we show what works
and what does not. Don't repeat mistakes

While priorities are clearly marked on the road surface, the stop line for cyclists crossing this junction is too far back, making it difficult to accelerate across the road between motor vehicles going along the other road. This is why cyclists stop ahead of where they should, in the middle of nowhere.

There is a temptation for all modes to try to push through when the way isn't entirely clear, and everyone has to look in several directions at once to see what everyone else is doing.

These are the types of reasons why this particular junction has the unfortunate position of being the most dangerous in the whole of the Netherlands.

Change is coming
This junction has remained as it is for a surprising amount of time, but now it is obviously outdated. The Dutch press covered this story and made demands for this and other similar junctions to be changed. Current plans are for reconstruction in the near future as part of works when a new tram system is installed.

Total traffic victims in the province of Groningen 1995-2008, all modes of travel. Yellow = injuries requiring hospitalisation, Red = deaths.

I couldn't find figures for deaths and injuries for the city of Groningen, but I could find them for the whole province, of which the city is a part. While 190000 people live in the city, 574000 live in the province.

As you'll see, the trend for all injuries is downwards, as is that for deaths, though 2008 sadly had a higher death rate than the three previous years. A target was set ten years ago to reduce injuries and deaths to 425 and 35 per year by 2010. This target was met before schedule. Another target has been set to reduce the figures to 300 injuries and 25 deaths per year by 2020.

These figures are also for all modes of travel.

Read more about Road safety in the Netherlands.

2013 update
We invited Boris Johnson in 2013 as well. He didn't reply.

Watch a video which shows Elephant and Castle being built. Cyclists were far from the thoughts of the designers of this junction.

The blue flags show crashes, yellow
show injuries between 2007-2012

2014 update
Read more in-depth analysis of this junction in Groningen and other dangerous junction in the Netherlands.

Not everything in the Netherlands should serve as inspiration.

When considering cycling injuries and deaths in Groningen vs. London, bear in mind that while Groningen's population is only about 190000 while London's is 8 million. However, Groningers cycle a lot more than Londoners. They make over 250000 cycle journeys each day. By comparison, 8 million Londoners make approximately 500000 cycle journeys per day.

Do you want to see this for yourself ? Book a study tour.