Dutch Cycle Highways

The Dutch have been developing a network of fast, super-high quality connections between towns and cities, for recreational and utility cycling. They are called Cycle Highways.

Dutch Cycle Highways: Dutch Cycling Embassy Best Practices

Cycle Highways are explained one of the chapters in a PDF book about Dutch cycle infrastructure, Best Practices, Dutch Cycling, by the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

The Dutch Cycling Embassy is an organisation based in Utrecht that represents universities, associations and companies that can provide Dutch expertise on cycling. It can facilitate government to government knowledge sharing, and business to government consultancy and construction services.

The Best Practices book explains that the bicycle is not only the most efficient way to move around cities, 'it can also be an attractive mode of transportation between cities.'

Dutch Cycle Highways: Rijnwaalpad

The Rijnwaalpad (Rhine Wall Path) is one of the Cycle Highways featured in the book. It runs for 18km between Arnhem and Nijmegen.

For the national government, the objective of the Rijnwaalpad was to reduce congestion on the main road between the two cities. The regional and local authorities wanted to increase the attractiveness of the area and promote sustainable travel.

The Cycle Highway project began in 2008, and the the highway opened in 2015. The end result is a bike path that is easily navigable, high-quality throughout, and provides a hassle-free way of getting between Arnhem and Nijmegen.

European Cyclists' Federation

The European Cyclists' Federation says you only have to yield to other traffic twice on the whole route. There are no traffic lights, and major roads are crossed by tunnels or bridges. At minor roads, there are raised tables and the highway's red surface continues across the tables; give way signs for motor vehicles indicate clear priority to the Cycle Highway.

Analyses of bicycle traffic show that users appreciate the smooth ride with no stops, and show a clear preference for it over alternative routes.

The construction costs were €17 million. In Harrogate District, £10 million is being spent on a single roundabout at J47 of the A1M.

Lessons Learned

The Best Practice book gives some 'lessons learned'.

1. Building a Cycle Highway involves cooperation between national government and several local authorities; it is important to create and keep political support.
2. A Cycle Highway is not about top speed, it's about convenience, not wasting physical energy, safety, and low stress. People choose these routes to have an easy, relaxed, and reasonably quick commute. The pleasure of being outside and reasonable speeds matter most.
3. Take care with the term Cycle Highway. It appeals to politicians, but can make local people think of multi-lane motorways, and spark fears of noise, danger, and pollution.

Dutch Cycle Highways: Comparison with the UK

I like to read about the latest developments in the Netherlands, but it also makes me depressed about cycle infrastructure in the UK.

It's like watching your neighbour putting the finishing touches to a house restoration project, when you've just bought the wreck next door. The neighbour is adding some fine furnishings and considering a hot tub, while you're knocking crumbling plaster off the walls and filling a skip with broken kitchen and bathroom fittings.

At our stage in network development, it's probably right to concentrate on building cycle tracks in towns.

Out of town, we have the Sustrans National Cycle Network. It's not directly comparable, but it's the nearest equivalent there is.

Sustrans have done something when no one else was doing anything. They are a charity, and rely on local and national government for funding, and any criticism has to be made in the light of the fact that they don't have their own money.

Further, they would see themselves as largely building recreational routes.

Still, their involvement in cycle infrastructure in the UK is definitely a mixed blessing.

They are committed to shared use. It doesn't work very well, and people don't like it.

The standards of some routes on the National Cycle Network are appalling.

There's a view in the UK that it's wrong to have good, convenient easy-to-cycle routes. Somehow, we need to have poorly surfaced paths shared by different users to make it inconvenient for everyone. This will force us to improve our moral character by making us resolve the conflict built into the infrastructure.

Obviously it's nonsense, but far too much of the NCN is a product of this thinking.

We need to stop believing that cycle infrastructure ought to be rubbish, and start treating it like any other infrastructure. Build it to the best possible standards to make it convenient for users, as the Dutch do. Then we'll be able to create a good national network, which should include Cycle Highways.

Sustainable Safety

The Best Practices book is full of interesting concepts and examples, and worth reading in full. I'm only picking out a few highlights here.

One concept that would benefit us is Sustainable Safety (p56).

It can be defined as the idea that people will always have flaws, make mistakes, and deliberately ignore the rules; the traffic system should allow for these mistakes to be made and reduce their impact.

The Hovenring

The Hovenring is one of the examples of Dutch cycle infrastructure in the book.

Anyone who has ever listened to Radio 5Live will have the word 'iconic' so many times that it brings them out in a rash.

That's why I'm going to describe the Hovenring Cycle Bridge as striking and original in its design. It features in Best Practices as an example of a multi-modal project.

Instead of putting pedestrian and cycle crossings at each arm of a very busy junction, the Hovenring Bridge is at a different level, allowing a constant flow of pedestrians and cyclists.

A floating cycling roundabout like this had never been attempted before, but innovating in this way benefits Eindhoven by reinforcing its identity as a city of technology. Ever since its completion in 2012, the Hovenring has attracted cycling and design enthusiasts from all over the world.

Now, where in Harrogate shall we put one of those?