How poor design creates conflict: An inconvenient and dangerous junction in Assen.

Poor infrastructure design causes conflict wherever it exists. This is just as true in the Netherlands as in other countries. It should not be assumed that employment of Dutch architects is enough to produce good results for cycling. We can't even guarantee that in the Netherlands...

Just over two years ago, a huge new cultural centre, De Nieuwe Kolk, opened in Assen to accommodate the library, cinema, theatre and other arts related facilities. It's a very impressive looking building and it provides some great facilities for local people.

Whether it makes sense for a city of just 70000 people to spend €100M on such a facility is not a subject for this blog. However the quality of design of the newly built road outside the new building, and the problems which it causes for cyclists most certainly is a subject for this blog:

How poor design leads to conflict and danger
All the problems shown in the video and the photos below occur within a 100 metre long stretch of new road. Not only the road but the large building next to it is also completely new. It is situated on top of an entirely new under-ground car-park which goes down several floors and required disturbing everything which already existed (plumbing, drainage, electricity etc.). There was a very good opportunity to improve conditions for cycling here as part of this work. To have done so would have cost a tiny fraction of the cost of the development as a whole. Sadly, that opportunity was not taken.



The enormous space between buildings on either side of the road (at its widest about 60 metres) has been used in order to create a specific look and to cater for the needs of motorists. It has not been used for the maximum benefit of pedestrians and cyclists.

The pavements (sidewalks) for pedestrians are incredibly generous even though the number of people who walk on them is low. Decorative steps to reach the main entrance of the new building take up a huge amount of space and a central reservation which accommodates a small number of plants is also several metres in width. Buses have functional bus-stops, taxis have a taxi-rank and there's a large loading area opposite the building.

Motor vehicles were very clearly the main priority of the designers. This road works well enough by car, providing a direct through route which is part of the busy inner ring-road. There are two pedestrian crossings to look out for, but apart from that, motorists rarely have to slow or stop.

That leaves one mode of transport which has to be fitted in around the others: Cycling is important in Assen. Assen residents make an average of nearly 1.2 journeys per day by bike and more shopping takes place in the city centre by bicycle than by other means. City centre businesses rely upon people being able to ride bikes to the city in order to survive. Sadly, making cycling safer and more convenient was not at the top of the agenda for this design. On this route to the city centre, cyclists have been provided with nothing more than on-road cycle-lanes. No attempt at all was made to improve on the inadequate previous layout. It has been known for many years that merely lowering speed limits limited effectiveness for improving cyclist safety but that's the only positive step which was taken. While a 30 km/h speed limit applies to this section of road, many people drive their cars faster because the road clearly can be driven along at a higher speed.

The result is that within this short length of road, cyclists experience the wide range of problems as shown in the video above and the photos below.

Architect's dream
Before starting with my photos, showing how the area really looks in daily use, here's one of the photos used by the architects to publicize their work on the new building. My vantage point for making most of the video was amongst the light sculpture on the steps, coloured purple in this photo:

Note that the architect's photo, taken soon after construction of the building. This emphasizes the appearance of the area, de-emphasizes conflict due to its design, doesn't give any hints as to how cyclists should behave here. Note that it shows no outdoor cycle-parking. This was retro-fitted at a later date after people realised how inconvenient it was to access the new building by bicycle. Note the line taken by the car headlights. Even in the best photo that the architects could take, cars consistently enter the cycle-lane when going around the corner. These points are expanded on below.

Cycle-lanes on bends encourage drivers to cut corners
There are many perpetual problems with on-road cycle-lanes, one of which is that drivers have a natural tendency to encroach on these lanes as they go around corners. This happens regularly on both sides of the road in this location. You can see it even in the architects' photo above. The white tracks left by the headlights of a passing car show that this car also entered the cycle-lane when going around the corner. Good cycling infrastructure should keep cyclists away from motor vehicles.

Drivers everywhere have a tendency to enter cycle-lanes where they go around corners. The Netherlands is no different. This is one of the reasons why use of on-road cycle-lanes erodes the safety of cyclists.

U-turns cause motor vehicles to enter cycle-lane
Because there is a designed in space for drivers to make U-turns, they do this regularly. However, the lanes for motor vehicles are not wide enough to avoid problems so nearly every car or van which makes a U-turn enters the cycle-lane in order to do so.

A still from the video above. Cars which are about to U-turn pull into the cycle-lane in just the same way as cars which are parking. In the video I was overtaken by this car which then pulled to the right and slowed down. I pulled out slightly to pass but the car then turned left across my path.

Note that bollards are used in an attempt to prevent cyclists or drivers from encroaching on the wide and usually empty pavement at this point, but nothing protects cyclists within the cycle-lane.

Taxi rank / loading bay entrance
Not only do drivers make U-turns, but they also turn across the cycle-lane to enter a taxi tank and loading area.

Take note not only of where the car is turning into but also the following danger just a few metres further along - a bus-stop which requires buses to cross the cycle-lane.

Bus-stops without bypasses
Assen has many good examples of how cycling infrastructure can be designed to avoid conflict with buses at bus-stops, but none of them served as examples for this busy street. Instead, cyclists on this short stretch of road experience all the same problems as cyclists anywhere else in the world where proper bus-stop bypasses are a rarity. Cyclists are endangered by buses overtaken by buses which then pull into the cycle-lane across their path and buses have a tendency to pull out of bus-stops while cyclists are riding past.

In the past, the east-bound bus-stop was before the corner where at least there were reasonably good sight lines. It has now been moved to after the corner.

A view in the opposite direction from the photo above. A bus-stop immediately around a bend. Assen has many bus-stop bypasses which remove conflict between buses and cyclists. Almost all of them are located on roads which are less busy than this one. Neither bus-stop built as part of this new development includes a proper bus-stop bypass to keep cyclists safe so there are clashes between cyclists and buses pulling in and out of the bus-stops.

Cyclists can't turn left to cross easily to the city centre
Many cyclists from the west of the city turn left at this point to enter the city centre. Turning left from a cycle-lane in a country where the convention is to drive on the right requires taking a good look over one's shoulder while also judging what is happening in front. This is increasingly difficult with age. Many older people cannot look around so easily as they could when they were young.

Making a left turn also often requires a cyclist to accelerate to pull out in front of a car. This is another factor which discriminates against those who are less able and it requires a level of confidence that the driver behind is paying attention.

At this location there are additional problems due to design:

1. The left turn takes place on a bend where motorists often cut the corner.
2. It happens at the same point as where pedestrians may cross the road and where motorists may (or may not) slow down or stop due to those pedestrians.
3. It's almost exactly at the point where motorists can make U-turns, which leads to unpredictable behaviour as drivers swerve right into the cycle-lane before they making a sharp left turn.
4. Drivers never turn left at this point so any motor vehicle which manages to pull alongside and begin to overtake very effectively blocks cyclists from being able to make their turn.

This is a very busy cycle-route. Most cyclists need to make a left turn here to enter the city centre. This is difficult because they are encouraged to ride on the right side of motor vehicles and because the pedestrian crossing is located exactly where cyclists also need to cross. Note that again someone has chosen to use the pavement rather than cycle-lane (disability buggies have the status of bicycles in the Netherlands). Any bus in this position is likely to swerve right immediately after the pedestrian crossing in order to enter the bus-stop.

Cycle-parking design inadequate
When the new building opened, an indoor cycle-park opened with it. This initially looked quite good, but it was not well thought through. Access was relatively difficult in comparison with parking outside the building, and the double layer stands used are of a poor design which does not support bicycles well (it's possible for a bicycle to fall out from them and land on the floor). What's more, the architects got some of the details very wrong. For instance, the indoor cycle-parking is not at ground level but requires going down some steps for access and while there is a wheeling gutter, this doesn't reach ground level but requires that people lift their bicycles. As a result of these problems, local people refused to use the cycle-parking and the council was forced to provide additional cycle-parking where it always should have existed - close to the front door of the building. Because of the planners' obsession with huge empty spaces, it was easy to find room for the cycle-parking but unfortunately, there is no good way of accessing this parking without cycling on the pavement:

The most convenient cycle-parking for the new building was retro-fitted outdoors in this location after local people objected to having to use a less convenient indoor cycle-park. This was intended by the architect as a huge empty space beside the building. Note also the pavement cyclist. Many people prefer to cycle on the pavement here rather than the road.

Cycle-lanes not wide enough for passing
These cycle-lanes measure 1.9 m wide, meeting recommended widths for cycle-lanes, but at busy times there are often too many cyclists here and people who wish to overtake must use the main traffic lanes. This of course brings another potential conflict - between cyclists and motorists.

At busy times these cycle-lanes are not really wide enough.

Lack of pedestrian crossing points
Not only cyclists but also pedestrians are inconvenienced by the new road layout. There are crossings only at either end of the building while many people have a reason to cross at points in-between.

No matter what planners might hope, pedestrians simply won't walk long detours to cross the road. This photo also gives another view of the popular conveniently placed outdoor cycle-parking which the planners thought cyclists didn't need.

A lot of people cross the road while pushing their bikes because there is no other way to make a left turn into the cycle-lane on the other side of the road and ride away from the camera on the correct side of the road.

Neither pedestrians nor cyclists can cross the road except at either end of the long building. The distance is simply too great.

Pavement cycling
In any place where cycling on the road does not feel safe, people will cycle on the pavement (sidewalk) instead. Pavement cycling is actually quite rare in the Netherlands because in most locations cycle-paths are provided which make people feel safe enough not to use the pavement or motor through traffic is removed making it safe enough to use the roads. However, where the infrastructure does not support safe cycling (such as in Shared Space areas or places like this) many people vote with their wheels and take to the pavement. The solution to pavement cycling is good cycling infrastructure:

Many people prefer to cycle on the pavement here rather than the road. The sight of cyclists on the pavement should be seen as a flag which indicates that road and cycle infrastructure design is not adequate. Children do it.

Cyclists should not be forced to break the law in order to achieve safety. Women also cycle on the pavement here.

And the cycle-lane is unattractive enough that a significant number of men cycle on the pavement here too.

Parking in cycle-lanes
Another of the perpetual problems with on-road cycle-lanes is that drivers just can't seem to avoid parking in them. That happens here too, and it usually takes place right at the point where it is most dangerous - i.e. right on the bend and where U-turns, cyclist left turns and a pedestrian crossing collide:

Cycle-lane parking is a problem everywhere that cycle-lanes exist. When drivers park in the cycle-lane this makes the already difficult situation around this junction even worse.

Google Maps immortalized another of the cycle-lane parkers.

Why now ?
You may wonder why I have waited until 2015 to publish a blog post about problems caused by infrastructure which was completed in 2012. This area has already featured as examples of "what not to do" on our study tours but it took time to get around to writing about these problems.

I held off at first with public criticism because the situation here had not really been made significantly worse than it was before. It's not realistic to expect that all steps taken will progress cycling. There will always be occasional mis-steps. Almost everything that changed between 2007 when we moved to the city and 2012 was good.

When I wrote in 2013 about what had been achieved in the last six years, I briefly mentioned the problems with the indoor cycle-parking at this location but was otherwise positive about almost everything except a new shopping centre and the road outside, which I was surprised to find were designed as if cyclists didn't matter at all. This has turned out to be part of a destructive trend. Current plans for Assen are simply not so good as those from ten years ago. More again on this soon.

The 2005 fietsverkeernota showed three
locations where cycling safety should
be improved which were close to the
new development above. (Highlighted
in yellow). An opportunity missed.

We moved here in 2007. We decided upon Assen after exploring much of the Netherlands and finding that this city combined the sort of life-style that we wanted with some of the best cycling infrastructure that we'd seen anywhere. What's more, Assen was not only already good but also had a huge ambition, expressed in an official document, to improve itself further for cycling.

Elsewhere in Assen: An old
but wide cycle-path which
was obviously intended to be
continued has instead been
cut off. Current plans are
to remove it altogether,
making a bad situation worse.

Improve or decline
Unfortunately, this no longer seems to be the case. Assen's ambitions are no longer what they were.

No country and no city is immune from declines in cycling. No place gets a free pass, no place has cycling so embedded in its culture that people won't stop cycling if it becomes unpleasant or dangerous. Cycling declined right across the Netherlands when policy favoured motoring and when Assen was an unpleasant city for cycling it declined in Assen too. Cycling is a very fragile mode of transport.

Where the cycle-path should have
continued: cyclists now ride on the
pavement even when there's a truck
parked on it. Few use the road. There's
now a blog post about this location.

Cycling can only be maintained and grown by investing in ever better conditions for cyclists. That is precisely what the Netherlands did from the 1970s until very recently and this successfully reversed the decline up until the 1970s. Stopping investment now, on the grounds that the cycling infrastructure is "finished" (an expression used by a councillor in a recent meeting at which I spoke about problems with another new design for Assen) will lead not to a constant level of cycling despite changes elsewhere to favour driving, but to a decline in cycling. This is doubly true when current plans in many cases will degrade conditions for cycling.

There will be more on the problems with the new plans in subsequent blog posts.

Overseas readers: Don't copy anything just because it's Dutch
The Netherlands has not turned against cycling, but across the Netherlands it seems that many of the principles on which the high cycling modal share of this country was built are now being pulled apart by people making change for the sake of change. Cycling is taken for granted by planners and architects. New plans fit cyclists around the edges of currently fashionable things deemed to be more important, such as the extra wide pavements shown above or nice lights.

The Netherlands still leads the world on cycling, but that doesn't mean that everything in this country is good for cyclists, nor that every Dutch designer or architect has any real understanding about how to design good infrastructure which encourages cycling.

It is important to be skeptical about claims any made by any architect or urban designer from any country. With the rise of interest in Dutch cycling infrastructure it's especially important that you don't approve of anything just because it's described as Dutch, but instead seek to build infrastructure which emulates the best of what they Dutch have achieved.

We are interested in what works, not what is currently most fashionable. In our independent study tours we show you not only the very best and most effective cycling infrastructure but also the mistakes which the Dutch are currently making and which you can learn not to make.

Other examples of where Assen has made recent planning mistakes include the unpopular and dangerous Shared Space at Kerkplein and a new shopping centre built with no provision for bicycles. 

Every Traffic Light in Assen

In Assen and other Dutch cities, traffic lights are used to control motor vehicles. Cyclists do not require traffic lights on their own but only on some occasions when they come into the same junctions as motorists. Assen provides an excellent example of how to minimise interactions between cyclists and drivers. The city also provides an excellent example of how few interactions with traffic lights there can be for cyclists where the infrastructure is well designed.

Every traffic light in Assen. Note how the centre of the city and residential areas have no traffic lights at all. Most traffic lights are on main routes for cars, not for bikes. Some spots show more than one set of lights.

Every Traffic Light in Assen
There are many misconceptions about how cyclists use traffic lights in the Netherlands. In order to try to explain how cyclists really use traffic lights in the Netherlands, this blog post shows every traffic light in Assen and explains what interactions, if any, cyclists have with each example.

You will see from the map above that there are few traffic lights in this city and those which exist are almost entirely on the main routes for motor vehicles. Residential areas have many junctions but no traffic lights in them at all. The very centre of the city also has no traffic lights at all. Many journeys by bicycle can be made without interacting with traffic lights. It was a specific goal when building the new suburb of Kloosterveen outside of the city on the west, that new residents would be able to reach the city centre by bicycle without meeting any traffic lights along the way. Traffic lights do occur on the motor vehicle route from the new suburb to the city.

Traffic lights are to be found where there are most cars, not where there are most bicycles. In many cases, due to the unravelling of driving routes from cycling routes, these traffic lights are not used by cyclists at all so never cause any inconvenience. Most cycle journeys do not involve repeatedly stopping at traffic lights.

Traffic lights controlled crossing are also provided to help cyclists to make convenient and safe crossings of major roads.

In total there are 28 locations with traffic lights in Assen, numbered 1-26 below (with "a" and "b" used where there are two too close together to separate on the map above). They are classified as below. Between these 28 traffic light locations, there have been 11 cyclist injuries over six years:

Pedestrian and cyclist crossings (1, 6, 13)
These lights are provided in order to improve cyclist safety when crossing potentially busy roads. While cyclists may find a red light when they reach one of these crossings, they never have to wait more than eight seconds (it's often less) before motor traffic is stopped and the light goes green for crossing. Junction one in a west-east direction is shown in this video:



There is also a traffic light at this location which occasionally stops both cyclists and motorists travelling north-south if a bus goes along the bus-road parallel with this cycle-path. However this defaults to green for both bikes and cars and provides only a very rare and very brief inconvenience.

Earlier videos demonstrate both junctions six and 13. These are just as convenient for cyclists as the crossing illustrated in the video above. One cyclist injury in Assen occurred at a crossing like this.

Simultaneous Green for bikes (9, 14a, 22, 23)
In Assen, traffic lights prioritize cycling. One of the ways in which this is done is the use of simultaneous green lights on which cyclists ride in any direction, including diagonally, across the junction with no interaction whatsoever with motor vehicles. These are combined with being able to turn right against a red light. Junction 22 is a mid-sized simultaneous green junction which has featured several times on this blog but this principle can also be used successfully on smaller and large junctions.

Where cyclists use traffic light junctions, the simultaneous green layout is the most convenient and safe way to do this. No cyclists have been injured at simultaneous green traffic light junctions in Assen.

Cyclists using the secondary W-E route south of the canal use
a simultaneous green junction. Those using the primary route
north of the canal have a bicycle road with no traffic lights

Junction nine is interesting because west-east (the most common direction of travel at this location) cyclists will only have their journeys interrupted by this traffic light if they are on the southern side of the canal, which is a secondary route. The North side of the canal is a bicycle road which offers the primary route for cyclists. It provides a direct nearly-car-free route to the city centre with no delays due to traffic lights for people who live on the west of Assen.

The main route for motor vehicles is also west-east in this location. The north-south route connects to residential feeder streets with lower traffic levels.

Junction 4a. One of three in Assen
where cyclists have a green light by
default and drivers wait for the light
to change

Default to Green for bikes (3, 4a, 17)
Three junctions in Assen default to a green signal for cycling and only make cyclists stop if a driver has triggered a sensor. The intention is that it is normally the case that you ride over these junctions without stopping.

There are videos which demonstrate both junction 3 and junction 17. No cyclists have been injured at default to green crossings.

Traffic light junctions which only exist for motor vehicles (7, 14b, 16, 18, 19, 26)
These junctions simply don't exist so far as cyclists are concerned. They regulate motor traffic along busy roads which provide routes for motor vehicles completely unravelled from cycling routes.

Previous blog posts cover how cyclists use an underpass so that they never have to stop at junction seven and how junction 26 exists only on the unravelled motor vehicle route.

Junctions 16 and 18 don't apply to cyclists at all even though they are in line with junction 17 which defaults to green for bikes. You can see them in this video.

Junction 19. On the other side of these traffic lights is the motorway. The only reason why you would reach this point on a bicycle is if you were that sort of vehicular cyclist who is determined to ride on motorways. There are far better routes North from Assen by bike than this one and they have fewer traffic lights too. While few cyclists use this junction, one person on a bike was injured here. View Larger Map

Traffic lights with only incidental interaction with cyclists (12, 25)

To access the hospital from the city
centre we follow the cycle path in
red directly to cycle parking by the
front door. It's only necessary to cross
using the lights from the South

Junction twelve is being rebuilt right at the moment. It was the home of the nearest thing we had in Assen to an advanced stop line. I used it in a blog post four years ago to demonstrate why London's new design for Bow Roundabout would be dangerous as even the old design of this junction in Assen already eliminated the conflict which London was building into a new design. Update: Since this blog post was written, junction 12 has been upgraded with a much improved design making cycling even more convenient and safe.

Junction 25, at the hospital entrance, is a major junction for motor vehicles combined with a simple crossing for bikes.

Major road junctions with cycle crossings on some sides of the roads (2, 4b, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15a, 15b, 20)

Junction 15a (15b is nearly identical)
A major junction for cars. Delays are
short for cyclists and there is time to
cross all six lanes without stopping
in the middle.

These junctions are nearly invisible to cyclists because they serve traffic on the ring road and in industrial areas and cyclists routes are mostly unravelled from them. When we do have to ride near these roads we often ride alongside them and do not cross. Nevertheless, when we do cross at these points, the delay to get a green light for bikes is not excessive: generally less than 30 seconds.

Junctions 15a and 15b are both very large and very busy. Both of these junctions have injured cyclists (five in total at these two junctions).

Junction five. In the video below, I ride
from South to North here. Pink/red
show cycle-paths/my route.

There is never a requirement for cyclists to stop in the middle of the road and operate a second traffic light in Assen, no matter how many lanes are crossed.

Junction five is illustrated in the video below. This video also demonstrates the junction timing. Note how the delay before crossing is not long (these cyclists reached the junction only slightly ahead of me) and how when cyclists are given a green light, it stays green long enough that a large group can cross this major junction (in this case five lanes of traffic) in one:

The blue bridge which the cyclists go under carries only cars, but it was built for the benefit of cyclists so that there did not need to be a traffic light on the cycle-route. Find out more about this.

Where there is a requirement for cyclists to be able to turn right, these junctions provide for safe right turns when there is a red light (a privilege which motorists don't enjoy in the Netherlands). It is very rare that anyone should have to ride across two arms of these junctions as part of one manoeuvre because in each case, another route exists.

Junction eight is really only a crossing so far as cyclists are concerned. It featured in a video showing children on a school trip.

Oldest junctions, soon to be replaced (21, 24)

Outside the railway station. Cycle
routes (not all are cycle-paths)
highlighted. This is being changed.

Junction 24 almost made it into the major junctions category. It doesn't cause many problems for cyclists, but it does represent an older attempt at providing cycling infrastructure and the work has already started on replacing that junction altogether within the next few years.

Junction 21 is an interesting example. It's the least satisfactory traffic light junction in Assen and because it's right next to the railway station, it's one of the first pieces of infrastructure that people see when they visit the city.

This is the closest example that we have of the sort of thing that seems to come to mind to many people outside this country if they try to think of what a typical Dutch traffic light junction looks like. It's actually one of the oldest pieces of infrastructure in this city, dating back to 1989 when the existing railway station was built. Two cyclists were injured at this junction.

This junction dates from the 1980s. It's the most awkward traffic light junction for cyclists in Assen and often requires people to make a two-stage turn. Don't take inspiration from older infrastructure like this. It is soon to be removed.

In the near future, through motor traffic
will be underground while cyclists
stay at ground level. No traffic lights
will be required so no more delays or
multi-stage turns for cyclists.

The railway station as well as the junction are to be replaced in the next few years and the traffic lights are going away. Most of the problem with traffic here is caused by through motor traffic travelling North-South. This traffic will use a tunnel in future. The result is that the junction outside the railway station can be transformed into a far more pleasant space which will provide for access to the station by car but should not be dominated by motor vehicles.

When this work is complete, this last of these older style traffic-light junctions in Assen will be gone. No traffic-lights will be required here once the main road is underground, greatly increasing convenience for cycling. The cycle-route between the railway station and the centre of the city will no longer have any traffic lights on it.

Places where there used to be traffic lights, but they're no longer needed

The first traffic lights installed in Assen were here. They
are no longer needed because this is now nearly car free

The idea of changing places so that motor vehicles don't dominate is not new to Assen.

Like all city centre streets in Assen, and across the Netherlands, the streets in the photo on the right was dominated by motor vehicles in the mid 20th century. This was the busiest street in Assen and the first traffic lights in the city were installed here in order to deal with the traffic.

However, the city centre streets are now either completely car free or now nearly car free. They can still be used as a through route by bike but not by car. The removal of through motor vehicles meant that the traffic lights were no longer needed at this location or several others in the city centre, making cycling more convenient.

Watch a video which demonstrates this street in action in the 1970s and now.

How well does this combination of junctions work ?
Every junction in Assen, whether with traffic lights or otherwise, can be used safely by every cyclist in Assen. What's more, this infrastructure is not only safe but also convenient. Children, older people, those with disabilities all use the same infrastructure as confident adults and fast cyclists because the same infrastructure works best for everyone in terms of both safety and convenience. No-one is expected to choose between a safe route and a convenient route.

Of Assen's 28 traffic lights, six simply don't "exist" so far as cyclists are concerned. Two more of the local traffic lights have only incidental influence on cyclists. Three are provided specifically to create safe crossing points for cyclists and three more default to green for bikes so rarely cause slowing for cyclists.

An underpass built in the 1970s
allows cyclists from the east of the
city to pass under three railway lines
and two roads, and avoid the old
set of traffic lights by the station.

Only half the traffic lights, fourteen sets, remain to be considered. Four of these are of the excellent simultaneous green design which provides the best combination of both convenience and safety for cyclists. Nine are large junctions which we use rarely by bike but which are in any case safe and convenient if you should have to use them.

Just only junction is annoying to use - the old junction at the railway station which is soon to be removed and will no longer cause inconvenience. Even at this location, though, there are ways in which many people can completely avoid the delays caused by that junction.

Infrastructure that we don't have. Lessons to be learnt

A current proposed design in
New Zealand. In the 1970s
there was a road in Assen
which looked a bit like this
but this dangerous design
was removed many years
 ago. This would never be
built now. Kiwis !
Please do not build this !

In no cases at all in Assen do we have cyclists on the road mixing with cars at a traffic light junction. There are also no cases where cycle-lanes lead cyclists between streams of moving vehicles. There is no location at which cyclists clash with motorists or have to turn across moving traffic at all. There are no advanced stop lines (bike boxes) used in Assen as these are inadequate to keep cyclists safe. There are no two stage turns and certainly no instances at all of the dangerous design in which cyclists are expected to share their straight on lane with that used by drivers turning right.

The sort of thing that many people think
of as a "Standard Dutch Junction". This
is again a proposal for New Zealand,
 described as "Dutch" though it's not.
Again it's not something I'd want to
see. In any case, large junctions are
but a small part of the picture.

We also don't have any junctions of the type which have become known in some circles as a "standard Dutch junction" and this is a very good thing.

The junction closest in design to these that we have is the outdated example by the railway station which, as described above, is being removed. Yes, Assen is getting rid of junctions which look like that, not building more of them.

Badly designed junctions lead to inconvenience. They perhaps also result in a reduction in safety as people try to find more convenient ways to make turns across traffic without having to stop twice.

Unfortunately, the idea that there is such a standard traffic light junction design, that it looks something like this, and that it's something to emulate, has become popular. I've seen this idea pop up in many places. In this case, it's gone so far as to the other side of the world. It is precisely to help people to avoid making mistakes like this that we began running cycling infrastructure study tours way back in 2006. It's not too late for New Zealand's planners, or those from elsewhere, to avoid making expensive and dangerous mistakes. You can do a lot better than this. Contact us. Ask for advice. We're here to help you.

Much more common than any traffic
light junction, this is in a residential
area, has a 30 km/h speed limit, raised
table, small corner radii, and most
importantly it's not a through route for
motor vehicles.

Huge junctions on small roads ?
We often have people ask us how the Dutch accommodate their "huge" junction designs on minor roads. The correct answer is, of course, that they don't do so because they do not need to.

Most junctions are not "huge". Most junctions are not busy. This is by design. Most junctions simply are not on the routes of through motor traffic. You'll note from the map at the top of this blog post that Assen simply doesn't have many traffic lights, and large parts of the city contain none. Many Dutch towns are like this.

In reality, at the most common design of junction in the Netherlands there is very nearly nothing at all to see. However, this is possible for reasons that go well beyond merely how you design traffic light junctions. Minor roads and residential streets have almost no motor traffic on them. To a far greater extent than other nations, the Netherlands has removed opportunities for rat-running.

Cycling routes are unravelled from driving routes to a great extent, making routes for cycling more direct and allowing cyclists to avoid traffic light junctions on their journeys. The only junction at which stopping is irritating is the older style junction at the railway station. This is from another age and we won't have to put up with it for much longer.

Summary
Readers may recall that when I visited London last year I was frustrated with the low speed and stop-start nature of cycling in that city. Many places in the world are like London in this regard. By contrast, it is rare that I stop for a traffic light when cycling in Assen and that is how it should be. Journeys by bicycle must be continuous and direct.

If cycling is convenient as well as safe then people will cycle. Apart from the few traffic lights installed specifically to allow cyclists to cross roads, cyclists do not need traffic lights. What they do need is a very dense grid of very high quality car free, or very nearly car free, routes.

If you want to emulate the Dutch success you need to emulate the best of Dutch practice. Don't make or accept proposals for second best.

Study Tour

Learn about real Dutch cycling infrastructure

The material above is an example of what we cover on our study tours. We don't just talk about this, but we demonstrate the infrastructure so that participants can see for themselves how well it works. It's important to distinguish the features of modern Dutch infrastructure which make cycling accessible to everyone while also demonstrating where it falls down. Where the Netherlands has made mistakes, and where those mistakes have not yet been corrected, it's important that those things are recognized as what they are and do not form the basis for new designs elsewhere.

Assen provides an excellent example of how to do the right for cycling. This city has no university and therefore does not benefit from a large student population which would boost the cycling modal share regardless of infrastructure quality. Assen's higher than average modal share for a Dutch city (a higher cycling modal share than any city outside the Netherlands) has been achieved by investing in a very comprehensive network of better than average infrastructure which is constantly being improved.

On our tours we also visit Groningen, which for many years has been the top cycling city of the Netherlands. Different design choices were made in Groningen. There's also much older and less polished infrastructure than what we have in Assen. This gives an opportunity to compare how well different things work, to point out some errors and to show how older designs differ from modern designs.

We're independent. This means we are not supported by government or engineering companies. We can be entirely candid about what is good and what is less good. We have no commercial reason to push one idea over another, we only tell you what works.

Update 2015: Comparison with Bolton
A correspondent from Britain, Mitt Doot, understood the point I was getting at with this blog post and produced a map showing the positions of all 102 traffic lights in Bolton, a city in the UK with about double the population of Assen:

Mitt writes: "It's really revealing of how endemic Britain's traffic problem is when a town of a similar size to Assen needs 102 signalized junctions in order to 'safely' function. And let's not forget that every single one allows both pedestrians and cyclists to travel through them, only the pedestrians (most of the time) get their own signal phase. Some of these junctions are enormous, multi-laned deathtraps, and cyclists are expected to ride over them nonetheless." and further "The blue line is the most direct route cyclists could take from Farnworth, in the south, to Astley Bridge, in the north. It involves 25 separate traffic light junctions, almost as many as every type of signalized junction in Assen combined, just to travel this 5 mile journey." You can read his entire comment below.

Another correspondent informs me that the blue line which has 25 traffic lights in a five mile distance is designated as a strategic cycle route. That does not make for efficient cycling. It seems the words are rather more impressive than the reality in this case.

Just like the traffic lights, all the roundabouts in Assen also work very well for cyclists. Read the older post "Every Roundabout in Assen".

Has Assen progressed over the last six years ?

This is the third part of a three part series. See also "Has Britain had progressed over the last six years?" and "Has London progressed over the last six years?". Now I look at Assen, where things have gone somewhat differently.

One of the first infrastructure photos I
took in Assen. We have priority over
 the road at this junction, as we do at
most junctions. Since I took this photo,
the cycle-path has been rebuilt with
smooth asphalt. Continuous small
scale improvements are normal here

We emigrated from the UK at the end of August 2007 and have now lived here in Assen for more than six years. Leaving one country to live in another, especially one in which you don't speak the language, is not easy. In and of itself, we don't recommend it. Emigration causes a lot of every kind of stress. We came here without jobs to go to so one of the first things we had to do was start our own business in order to try to make ends meet. At the same time we were trying to learn Dutch, work out how to register ourselves as residents, get telephones, electricity, gas etc. organised. It's been a real struggle for all of us which I can't do justice to in one paragraph, however we do now have what we were looking for - an environment within which our children and ourselves were safe to be able to incorporate cycling into our lives.

We took a break from organising Study Tours in 2007 to move house and settle in but started again in 2008. We've now shown hundreds of people how and why the Dutch cycle. Other countries could learn from what the Dutch have done. Indeed, if there is a serious intention to have a similar cycling modal share, they must learn as this is the only approach which has had this degree of success Many of the things that you will read about below are seen for real on our study tours. Book a place !

Why choose Assen ?
One of the questions we've been asked most frequently by Dutch people is why we chose to live in Assen. We came here not because it's the biggest metropolis of the Netherlands and not because it's the top cycling city in the Netherlands. Assen is neither of those.

Ordinary in the Netherlands means
extraordinary elsewhere. This is one
of the first photos I took of city centre
cycle-parking. Cycle-parking in this
area has since been improved

In many ways, Assen is quite average for the Netherlands. The majority of the population of any country live in relatively average surroundings, and the majority of the population of the Netherlands lives in places not so different to Assen.

Assen is sparsely populated and it's the capital of the least densely populated province. It's a market town which is quite lively for its size but certainly not a student city like nearby Groningen and Zwolle. Assen is exactly what we were looking for.

What has Assen done for cycling ?
Ordinary cycling provision in the Netherlands is something that would be considered quite extraordinary in any other country. Actually, Assen's infrastructure was slightly ahead of Dutch average when we moved here and this was an attraction of the city. However, remarkable strides have been made since that time. Cyclists are always an important part of planning in the Netherlands, and while not everything has been without a hiccough, this city has made great efforts in the last six years.

If you're in a race you can never catch up by going slower than the people in front of you. It's the same with cycling provision. For other places to "catch up" with the Netherlands so far as cycling is concerned requires them to out-spend the Netherlands and perhaps also use their resources more efficiently than the Netherlands in order to improve conditions to the point where cycling is an attractive proposition for everyone. Unfortunately, what we see from other countries is usually still the opposite of this. Investing too little can never achieve the very dense grid of very high quality cycle-routes required to enable true mass cycling.

Why concentrate on Infrastructure ?
I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again, but building a high cycling modal share is all about infrastructure. Whatever demographic group you have, the potential for cycling is maximised by having infrastructure which makes the most of whatever potential that group of people has with regard to cycling.

Student cities are always likely to be able to achieve a higher cycling modal share, while areas with a high proportion of immigrants from non-cycling nations will likely achieve a lower modal share, but in the Netherlands all demographic groups cycle more than they would if they lived in another country.

Even many Dutch cycling experts greatly overestimate "being Dutch" as a reason the Dutch cycle. Typically they are unaware of how much of an effect the infrastructure and resulting safe environment for cycling in this country has on immigrants from countries with low cycling modal shares. If considered as if they were separate countries, immigrant groups in the Netherlands would be amongst the highest cycling nations on earth. Conversely, Dutch people who emigrate usually stop cycling.

No amount of PR and marketing is equivalent to one metre of decent cycling infrastructure. None of that changes how people feel about getting onto a bike. If you want to build cycling in your nation, build top quality infrastructure which makes cycling into a subjectively safe means of transport.

How is Assen's infrastructure ?

By no means definitive, a few minutes of editing a Google Maps image of Assen to include the routes I could remember resulted in this. The area shown is roughly an 8 km x 8 km square. Good quality cycle-routes need to be at a high density in order to make cycling attractive to all.

Wide, smooth cycle-path built before
we came to Assen. Has not needed to
be changed in the last six years.

Narrow red lines show the locations of cycle-paths which already existed when we moved to Assen. Some of these were actually very new when we moved here, so many of these are less than ten years old and this does not indicate that they are inferior.

The narrow light blue lines are roads on which one cycles but where some technique or other reduces the number of motor vehicles. In the city centre, the streets are nearly or completely car free. In other parts of the city there is a more attractive parallel route for motorists or they are in residential areas which cannot be used to make through journeys by car.

Recreational path built on the East of
Assen a couple of years ago. Excellent
quality adding to the rest.

The thicker green lines show where completely new cycle-paths have been built or extensive resurfacing of older cycle-paths has taken place in the last six years (this is from memory and by no means complete). Almost all the main routes are now up to current standards. i.e. smooth, wide (2.5 m single direction, 3 m for bidirectional secondary route paths up to 4 m for bidirectional primary route paths) and with well designed junctions.

Norwegian Study Tour group riding on
the Bicycle Road.

The dark blue line shows the location of a bicycle road where motor vehicle use is limited and cyclists have priority. This has been extremely successful in this location. Of course it's not the sort of thing you could put anywhere as some roads will always have too much through traffic.

This counts as a main route through a
residential area. Almost no cars go
through here so children can cycle
5 abreast on the way home from school.
Cycle training does not lead to Dutch
children cycling espcially safely. They
are safe because cars are elsewhere.

Empty spaces within the city can be assumed to be residential areas which don't provide through routes by motor vehicle and therefore are not used for rat-running.

Roads through empty spaces outside the city can be assumed to have less through traffic on them than you might expect due to measures taken to civilize country roads.

Where there are gaps shown on the map, these are not really gaps but just different infrastructure. In practice the outcome of this is that we can cycle anywhere we want to at any time we want to and conditions remain equally pleasant everywhere that we go.

Brand new four years ago, this cycle-
path provides excellent access to the
city from villages on the East of Assen.

A quality cycling experience doesn't stop at the edge of the city. You'll note from the map that there is a good quality route in every direction out of the city. This allows for commuting adults and for school children who travel in from remote villages. The route to the East was upgraded substantially in 2009 and the route to the West has had much work more recently. Those to the North-West, South-West and South have had partial upgrade. The route to the North was upgraded just before we moved here. That is is possible to make journeys outside the city as easily as journeys within it is required because secondary schools exist only in the city so all secondary school students (age 12-17) who live anything up to 20 km away cycle to the city daily for their education.

Because all these routes join together from different villages, towns and cities, it's actually possible to ride inter-city on good quality infrastructure and it's possible to do this at a good speed. We've done this on many occasions.

A recreational route doesn't need to be
so wide as a main route, but it's good
that they are so well surfaced as this.

We should also not forget the many kilometres of recreational cycle-path which have been created in the last few years around Assen. For instance, the route shown on the left extends several kilometres to the North-West. It's of very high quality concrete construction.

While most recreational routes are not people's direct commuting routes, they often provide useful segments for longer rides.

Traffic Lights
In Assen, the process of unravelling cycling routes from driving routes started some time ago. This has continued during the last six years and the result is that traffic lights are almost completely avoided when cycling. They simply don't appear very often on most of the more popular routes available to cyclists. For instance, when we cycle to the centre of the city we have several routes available to us with no traffic lights at all and one route which has a single traffic light. By car there would be a minimum of two sets of traffic lights. It's similar if we go to other destinations, like the dentist. This holds not only for destinations within the city but also if I head out of the city.

Simultaneous Green traffic lights are
green for cyclists in all directions at
once while all drivers have red.
Safety is achieved by separation in
both time and space.

Where traffic lights are inevitable, those used by cyclists have nearly all been changed within the last six years. Almost all traffic light junctions shared with motorists in Assen now use the Simultaneous Green system. This means that when there is a green light for bicycles, all direction go at once while all motor vehicles are stopped. Simultaneous Green is fabulous for cyclists. It's both a more convenient and far safer solution than two stage turns. It gives cyclists a genuine advantage which cannot be achieved by any design which places cyclists on the roads with cars. When this type of junction is combined with allowing cyclists to make right turns on red lights, as is the case in Assen, convenience is even further enhanced.

Where cyclists have to cross driving routes at traffic light controlled crossings (i.e. equivalent to toucan crossings), the delay is as short as possible. In practice this often means that the maximum delay is eight seconds, and that often the delay is shorter than that - as shown in the video below:



The few occasions on which you have to stop for a traffic light have little effect on cyclists being able to make efficient journeys. As a cyclist you feel valued. There's a safe place to wait to cross and a safe place to cross to. The delay won't be long. No need to break rules in order to feel safe and as a result, it's comparatively rare that anyone goes through a red light.

There are also a couple of places in Assen where the traffic lights default to green for bicycles. It's impossible to have a controlled crossing which is more convenient than that.

Bridges

While this bridge only carries cars, it
provides for bicycles. Building it
removed a traffic light which would
otherwise have stopped those bikes.

I've often featured a particular large blue bridge on this blog. The reason why is that it is something quite unusual. The bridge was built in the first few months after we arrived in the city and while it carries only cars, it exists to improve conditions for cyclists.

Before the bridge was built there was simply a large flat road junction here with traffic lights. The canal had been filled in in the 1960s. Cyclists heading from the left of the picture would have to stop in order to cross the road. Because this is part of an important route from a new suburb into the city centre, no stops were allowed so this large bridge now carries cars over the cycle-path.

Several other bridges were built along the new route into the city centre and an historically interesting older bridge was moved into a new position simply because this would provide something interesting for cyclists.

New bridge in a residential area

Bridges have also been built within the new housing development as landscaping features which also allow cyclists and pedestrians to be able to make use of routes not available to drivers. These bridges have been constructed over water features which exist only because a hole was dug to create something to place the bridge over. It's a way of sending a very clear signal that more direct routes are available by bike.

While extensive road works go on, the
city sometimes builds temporary
bridges for cyclists to preserve cycling
routes. This is one of the many ways that
cyclists are not put off by road-works.

Assen also has occasionally built temporary bridges so that existing cycle routes are not cut off by road works. It's very important that road works do not cause problems for cyclists as this may cause people to stop cycling. If people stop due to an unpleasant experience then it may take a long time to convince them to try cycling again. This is why it is important to prevent the initial loss of cycling. I've written previously about many examples of how cycling routes can be preserved during road works.

Roundabouts
Only two new roundabouts have been built in Assen since we moved here. As with all other roundabouts in Assen, cyclists are not required to ride on the road with cars.

The cycle-paths around this roundabout,
built in late 2007, initially went no-where
because the area had not yet been fully
planned. However, whatever the future
should hold, it was already known that
cycle-paths would be needed

It's unacceptable to expect cyclists to hold their own with motor vehicles when negotiating a roundabout. It's a difficult task which only the fit are likely to be able to do with a sufficient degree of safety. Older people and children can't ride safely around roundabouts with motor vehicles. But it's not just for these groups that it is better not to be on the road.

Provision of top quality cycling infrastructure at roundabouts provides a better experience for all cyclists.

Kloosterveen

Roads in Kloosterveen are not straight
lines. They are designed both to look
attractive and to reduce the speeds
of drivers.

The new suburb of Kloosterveen was partially built when we came to Assen and building is set to continue for several more years. Kloosterveen is a very attractive new housing development which is quite typical of a Vinex location. Cycle routes are shorter than driving routes and the suburb is self contained with all required facilities. These are family friendly locations with a mixture of social as well as privately owned housing. There are no gated communities in the Netherlands.

Kloosterveen was designed to enable 2/3rds of primary school age (5-11 years) children to cycle to school.

Kloosterveen shopping centre. Most
shopping is done by bicycle. Watch
a video which shows how this works.

The bridge in a residential area above, one of a pair within a couple of hundred metres of each other, was constructed in Kloosterveen in the last few years. All facilities were provided as temporary buildings before the permanent locations could be built.

Next to the temporary supermarket was a temporary hairdresser, florists and chip shop. The temporary church and several temporary primary schools provided different types of education at another location in the suburb.

Kloosterveen's permanent shopping centre replaced many of the temporary buildings and was built from nothing over a period of just over a year. It is designed to be visited most conveniently by bicycle.

Kloosterveen controls access to the suburb by car by several means including a physical control on a bus road but the development also provides adequate residential car parking spaces in order to avoid conflict.

Because this is new-build there were no restrictions on what could be built. This is just as true for new-build developments anywhere else in the world. The choices made by planners affect generations of people who live in suburbs like this. Good choices could be made anywhere.

Cycle-parking

A sea of bicycles outside Assen's
railway station. 2550 spaces here
means a space for every 26 residents.
London has 2800 spaces spread
between 50 railway stations. That's
just one space for every 2800 residents.

Like many places, Assen never seems to have enough cycle-parking. There are thousands of spaces in the city centre, more than enough for every child to cycle to school. When we first came to live in Assen, the number of cycle-parking spaces at the railway station was slightly over 1000. This increased in 2009 to 2300 spaces and in 2010 to 2550 cycle parking spaces.

Assen's railway station also has a full service cycle-shop which has the longest opening hours of any shop in the city (every day before the first train until after the last train) and provides this city with more bike-share bicycles per thousand residents than London.

Indoor cycle-parking at one of
the main shopping centres.
This can get chaotic and some
limits have been placed on
where bikes make be left. i.e.
not blocking fire exits & doors

The city centre has had to change the way it organises cycle-parking on several occasions since we moved here. All the racks in the centre of the city have been replaced with a type which offers a higher density of parked bikes.

Cycle-parking in the shopping centres can be difficult to access on busy days due to the popularity of cycling.

Two years ago, Assen's library, cinema, theatre and concert hall were rebuilt into a single location in the city centre which offers top class covered and guarded, free of charge cycle-parking in the basement. Facilities include that it's warm, dry, clean and well lit. Free charging is offered for those with electric bikes, CCTV watches over your bike while it's parked and a guard who is on duty for at least part of the day can organise some minor repairs while you enjoy a show. This cycle-park never shuts until after the last performance so you're unlikely to find your bike locked inside the cycle-park.

Even though this cycle-park is really of very good quality, there were complaints locally because it is necessary to use a ramp for access:


In fact, this cycle parking is not very convenient to use in comparison with parking your bike outside. for quick visits to the library, people prefer to park outside and people pressure has forced outdoor parking to be built.

Hiccough at the new shopping centre
Not everything goes perfectly all the time. A new shopping centre in Assen provided outdoor cycle-parking, but no good way for shoppers using the supermarket to take their shopping to their bicycles and return the shopping trolley to the shop. This caused many complaints, and quite rightly so.

A shopping centre with no proper cycle
parking ? In Assen ? Does whoever
was responsible still have his job ?
A video shows the inconvenient
cycle access to this shopping centre.

At the moment there is a temporary solution. Part of the indoor car park has been separated by barriers and turned into a cycle-park. This works, but it's smelly and dark - not at all like a custom built cycle-park should be.

Where conditions for cycling are good, people cycle. This country is not rabidly anti-car and wouldn't benefit from being so if it was. Normally the Netherlands isn't anti-bicycle either, because most people in this country realise that bicycles are important for the health, wealth and happiness of the people. However, it's only "most people" who have realised this, not all of them.

On the opposite side of the road, easily
the worst new bus-stop design in Assen
even though there's plenty of room for
a bicycle bypass. Designed by the
same architect as the shopping centre?

Somehow, someone appointed the job to design this shopping centre for a city where most shopping is collected by bicycle managed to do this job without providing good enough cycling provision that customers could collect their shopping on their bikes.

It's hard to imagine what went through the mind of whoever was responsible for making such a mistake as this.

The road next to the shopping centre was rebuilt at the same time as the shops were built. On this road, a bus-stop was built without a proper bypass for bikes. Was this the work of the same architect ? As it happens, this bus stop is in a location where few people cycle so the consequences of this mistake are not so serious as they could have been. This is a mainly car through route, unravelled from main bicycle routes. However, bad design like this is surely not needed by Assen or any city which seeks to grow it's cycling modal share.

People sometimes think we "cherry pick" what we show about this city. i.e. that we only show the best things and miss out the worst. This is not true. The network of very high quality cycling provision really does go very nearly everywhere. Small parts which fall below the best standard are not extraordinarily terrible. Take for example the cycle-lane at the bus-stop shown here. This lane is smooth and of a decent width, it's just not up to the standard of other things in the city. However, this is not to the standard required to make cycling subjectively safe and attractive to all so we must criticise it.

Unfortunately, the problems in this location have not been fixed and look like they will spread. Read a blog post from 2015 showing more.

Snow
So much for what has been achieved by Assen in the last six years, now for a prediction about what will happen in the next few months.

The opposite side of the road from the
first photo in this blog post, in winter.
Snow completely cleared from the
cycle-paths.

Winter is approaching fast but I expect we'll not have too much trouble with snow and ice in the next few months. It's not that Assen is particularly mild in winter - in fact, winter temperatures here are colder than the Northern tip of Scotland or the Southern tip of New Zealand, but we rarely have problems.

Why ? An excellent standard of snow ploughing and salt application keeps problems at bay. Winter doesn't get in the way of cycling.

Future plans
Assen has many plans for the future. Some of this has already been started, several roads, cycle-paths and bridges (most of them cycle-bridges) are being replaced along one of the canals. There are also plans to renew many of the roads in the South East of the city and this will involve building new cycle-paths.

Public plans for the railway station area. The busy road goes underground, the long cycle-tunnel under the station which impressed me in 2008 will be made shorter and the bike parking will expands to 3500 spaces combined underground and on the roof of the station.

The railway station is also set for replacement. The new railway station will have cycle-parking for 3500 bicycles (one for every 22 people even allowing for future population expansion to 80000) and the busy road which goes past the railway station now is being put underground so that cyclists from the station will be able to get into the city centre without having to stop at a traffic light or negotiate with traffic.

In 2014 the plans for the station were finally published. They are not as positive for cycling as we had hoped. A future blog post will explain the problems.

Is your city catching up ?

A friend of mine lives 100 km south
of here in Deventer - another 'average'
city which is investing in ever
better cycling infrastructure.

Assen is mostly quite an average Dutch city, but Assen certainly is not standing still. The changes which have been made here in the last six years are enormous and cycling has grown from an already high base. This was already a very good place to cycle before we moved here, but it's a lot better now.

It's not just Assen than has been doing this. Almost every Dutch town is in an undeclared competition to out-do the other. Each of them improving their infrastructure because they're investing enough money, time and design effort.

To see for yourself what the Netherlands has
achieved, how important this is for cycling,
and where it's going next, book a study tour.

To catch up with Assen, and to catch up with the Netherlands as a whole, you cannot progress slowly but need to run very fast indeed. Half measures and low aspirations will not achieve what the Netherlands has achieved in the past, nor will they come anywhere near where the Netherlands is going in the future. How much time do you have ?

See also "Has London progressed in the last six years ?" and "Has Britain progressed in the last six years ?"