Fast urban cycle route: Spoorbaanpad Almere

Spoorbaanpad is a 12 kilometer (7.45 miles) long fast cycle route in Almere. According to a site about fast cycle routes in the Netherlands it is the longest urban cycle route of the country used by 21,000 cyclists per day. The name means ‘Rail road path’ and refers to the fact that it follows the rail road for its entire length. I visited Almere for my series of modern fast cycle routes in the Netherlands.

"Spoorbaanpad" a cycle path right through Almere, the blue part is shown in the second video Link to map

Almere is the youngest city of the Netherlands. Last month it was only 35 years ago that a handful of people got the key to the first permanent homes. Almere grew rapidly from the first 50 people in 1976 to a city of 190,000 last year. Putting it in the top 10 of largest cities in the Netherlands. By 2030 the city will have an expected population of 350,000 making it the 5th largest city. Almere is so young because it was founded on reclaimed land: sea bottom not 50 years ago. After a ring dike was finished in 1967 the area was pumped dry by 1968. The first trees were planted in 1969 but most of the city is from the 1980s. That makes almost all in the city not much older than 30 years and everything was designed, including of course all infrastructure.

Almere city centre, not your typical Dutch city. From right to left just behind the tall buildings you can see the elevated cycle path "Spoorbaanpad" next to the also elevated railway.

The infrastructure was designed following the Dutch principles of segregation. Traffic with a different speed, mass and direction is kept apart from traffic with another speed, mass and direction to improve overall road safety. Since this city was literally started from a blank canvas the principles could be followed 100%.

We therefore find no less than four entirely separated grids of infrastructure:

• an elevated railroad with only multi-level crossings;
• separated bus-only tracks (that can also be used by emergency vehicles);
• separated fast through cycle routes;
• through roads and connector roads for private motorised traffic only.

The four different grids; black dotted line, rail road; green (dotted) lines: cycle paths; yellow lines: bus tracks; thick gray lines: private motorised traffic only, thin gray lines: shared space motorised traffic/bicycles.
Note how direct the cycle/bus routes are and how indirect the routes for private motorised traffic.

Most of the crossings of these grids are multi-level. Unfortunately the bus track crossings for cyclists are all level crossings but they are traffic light controlled and these lights are green for cyclists most of the time, unless a bus arrives. Cyclists also cross most of the main roads at a different level. There is just a handful of level crossings with motorised traffic. Only the end-destinations, the small low speed residential streets, are shared space for private motorised traffic and cyclists. But there the speed differences are almost eliminated because these streets have a speed limit of 30 km/h or 18mph.

Spoorbaanpad, a look into how it is used, the final 90 seconds show the biggest crossing and the interaction between motorists and cyclists.

Some details tell us the route is already a bit older. The width is not consistent for all of the route and neither is the surface. The level crossings with the bus tracks almost seem a design flaw. Even though the route crosses the bus tracks only about 5 times, I had to stop twice for a bus and that is a bit odd for a "non-stop cycle route" to say the least. But one junction is even stranger, a crossing with a main road near the end of the route. It is the only crossing where cyclists do not have priority over motorised traffic which is inconsistent with the principles of a modern fast cycle route. The last 90 seconds of the first video focuses on this crossing because something strange happens there. Even though the cyclists do not have priority here, they do get it most of the time. Here we see the other Dutch road safety principles of predictability and forgivingness at work: since drivers know exactly where the cyclists want to go they are willing to be courteous. Not very strange because the design of the junction (with large speed bumps for drivers) also implies cyclists could have priority. It is interesting to see most cyclists respond just as friendly with a ‘thank you gesture’.

The (almost) full route at very high speed: 11 kilometers in 5 minutes, only the first kilometer is missing but that is going through an area that has yet
to be developed. It then goes through the centre and the end is
in the east of Almere.

More info on Almere on Wikipedia (where you can also see that Almere and Milton Keynes in the UK are twin towns) and a page with pictures of the (sometimes) exceptional architecture. 
This is the second fast cycle route I covered. The first was the inter urban route between Breda and Etten-Leur.