Road-works can seriously disrupt cycling. If cyclists are forced to dismount, to make longer journeys or to ride on roads full of motor vehicles then these inconveniences and dangers could cause people to stop cycling.
It is not exceptional or unusual that cyclists should be thought of during road works. These four videos were shot within the last week:
A large junction for cars in Assen is being reconstructed. It's on a busy cycle-route so this has been maintained by building an easy to use temporary route through the construction site.
While works take place on the ring-road of Assen, motorists are required to drive in one direction only on part of the ring road. Driving straight through attracts a €140 fine. This does not affect cyclists because we have a separate cycle-path.
A new roundabout is being constructed in a village. The road is closed to through traffic, but the cycle-path is not so cyclists can make their journeys just as conveniently as usual
Works in the countryside have meant closure of a short length of cycle-path. A lane from the road is taken in order to preserve good cycling conditions. This cycle-path is used almost entirely for recreational use, but it is still important that cycling should not be disrupted even here.
On this blog there are many other examples of how road works can be made not to prevent cycling. See all the "Road works vs. the Dutch Cyclist" blog posts for more videos and photos showing how road works in any situation are made to have as little effect on cyclists as possible.
When Judy and I were planning routes a evenings ago we came along this cycle-path. It's being upgraded from an older surface to modern smooth concrete, as has happened on many cycle-paths. However, while the new concrete is setting you can't ride on it, so half the road has been closed for bikes and drivers must wait at traffic lights not just once but twice within a few km.
After resurfacing
This might seem exceptional, but in the Netherlands it's not exceptional at all. This is actually quite normal (see all the examples on this blog together). If you want a high cycling modal share to be preserved while there are works, the subjective safety of cyclists must be preserved while the works take place. If this is not done then people may stop cycling themselves, and more importantly they may stop their children from cycling to school, and that is the route to less cycling in the future.
It's nearly two years since my last roundup of videos showing how road works don't inhibit cycling in the Netherlands, and here are two more videos showing different examples of the same thing.
The principle remains the same: It is extremely important that cycle routes not only are kept open, but also retain a high degree of subjective safety, when there are road works. If this is not done then there is a good chance that people will be put off cycling, and if they are put off then they may never return to cycling.
The first example is from here in Assen. This is a secondary route into the city centre, on the other side of the canal from the primary route (a bicycle road which we've covered several times before). Even though this is a secondary route, and the detour to the primary route is short, this route has also been kept open for cyclists for the duration of the works, at the expense of drivers:
We saw the second example on our holiday last week. This is not in Assen, but in Apeldoorn, a town about 120 km south of here. In this case, a large junction was being reconstructed and the road surface had been completely removed. Drivers travelling in this direction have a long detour while the works take place. However, while there is necessarily a slight detour for cyclists due to the works, it's been kept to the shortest distance possible while preserving safe crossing points away from the works themselves. The reconstruction will include improvements to the cycling infrastructure, but for now it is necessary to cross the road and ride on temporary surfaces:
Cycling is inherently quite fragile. If it seems unsafe then people are less likely to take part.
If routes to school don't seem safe then parents won't let their children cycle to school (something which almost all Dutch children do). If older people are expected to develop extra strength to deal with riding in unpleasant conditions, then they also would be scared away.
This is why it is necessary to go to some lengths to keep cycling as an attractive and preferable alternative to driving or taking public transport even when works are necessary on cycle-paths or roads.
Only if cycling retains attractiveness and convenience for all can everyone continue to cycle. It is necessary for cycling to have this wide appeal in order to have a modal share which is greater than anywhere else in the world.
Countries with an ambition to grow their cycling modal share need to understand the importance of this. Cycling infrastructure needs to be seamless and simple to use for all ages and abilities, and cycling needs to be supported everywhere, not just where it is easy to do so. Only that way does cycling become a choice for the majority. Unless this is the case, cycling remains a minority pursuit.
The second video in this post shows a small part of a 130 km journey home that we made together by bike last Sunday. As is usual when cycling in the Netherlands, this distance was covered mostly on cycle-paths but also on some stretches of roads with little traffic. Apart from cobbled surfaces through a few villages, leading in one case to another redirection. Not once on our journey did we experience off-putting conditions for cycling, and nor did we expect to find such conditions. Comprehensive infrastructure works not only for short journeys, but also for longer journeys.
We've lived nearby this canal for four years now. When we arrived, we were amazed at the quality of the surface of this path and that it took such a direct line without interruption. I've blogged about it a few times before. While the harsh winters rendered it slightly less smooth than it had been, we remained impressed.
However, others thought there was more to be done. A better quality of cycle-path was possible. Part way through September, signs appeared warning that the cycle path was to be re-surfaced and that the work would take about a week. The work started on the 11th of September.
By the 14th, the first layer of asphalt was finished and I went for a ride:
Explanatory captions for this video are visible only if you view it on a computer and not on a mobile device. You will not fully understand this video if you view on a mobile device.
14 September: First layer complete
except at the very ends of the path
Though it was good before, the work on the damaged parts of the foundations and this new layer of asphalt on top made a huge difference. The path was now supernaturally smooth and efficient to cycle on.
Four kilometres of cycle-path with nothing to stop for or to give way to, and without even a slight bump in the surface.
16 September: Machinery applying the top layer of asphalt to the cycle-path.
The surface is wide enough
for racing rollers.
Extra work was required at
the fourteen connecting paths.
The edges aren't yet tidied up, so we can see how much thicker the new surface is relative to the old
Video showing the equipment used to re-surface this cycle-path. It's constructed in exactly the same way as a road:
Explanatory captions for this video are visible only if you view it on a computer and not on a mobile device. You will not fully understand this video if you view on a mobile device.
This new surface provides part of a direct route following the canal from South West to North for cyclists. It is especially useful for those making longer journeys such as commuting from the West of Assen to Groningen or those who are riding past the city as it joins up with other similar quality cycle-paths at either end. Click for a view of this stretch of the cycle-path from its Southern-most point.
Before this blog post went live, the work was complete. The sides of the path are now level with the path, meaning no nasty surprise should you ride over the edge of the asphalt. Also, all fourteen entrances onto the path have been upgraded, so are super-smooth.
Afternoon 3rd October update
Well, I thought they were finished. However, when walking the dog today I discovered this going along the cycle-path, just making the edges just a little bit smoother and better matched to the asphalt than they already were:
Before we moved over here, something that impressed me on visiting was that so much infrastructure was new, and that each time we visited we would see a change since the last visit. Huge projects seem to manage to get completed on time and to a reasonable budget here, very much in contrast to where we lived in Britain.
Cycling from the outskirts by the ring-road to the centre of Assen on a nice sunny Saturday along the Vaart NZ bicycle road in Assen. On the bicycle road, the first 4:10 of the video, there were 59 bikes, three cars, two mopeds. On the other side of the canal, the main route for cars and a secondary route for bikes, there were 15 cars and an unknown number of bikes. I'm not going to even try to count the bikes in the city centre.
One particularly impressive piece of work which we've seen in Assen since we moved here is the renovation of the Vaart, a canal from the western edge of the city to the city centre. This stretch of canal is 2.5 km long, and 1.5 km of it was moved sideways by two metres in order to make the Northern side narrower and the Southern side wider. This had to be done because more space was needed on the Southern side in order to provide both a good quality segregated cycle path as well as pedestrian space, residential car parking and a route for drivers. The Northern side could afford to be a little narrower as it was to become a bicycle road and would no longer function as a through route for drivers.
The red line shows the extent of the works.
As well as the work to move the canal itself, the road was completely reconstructed on the South side of the canal and some of the North side of the canal and extensively reworked on the rest of the North side. The work also required a large bridge to be constructed to carry cars on the dual-carriageway ring-road over the cycle path in order to keep the cyclist route uninterrupted, as well as two new lifting bridges for cars and bikes, one new bridge for bikes only and moving an historical bridge into a position where it could be used by cyclists and pedestrians, but block motor vehicles.
The public face of the works was this humorous map. Zoom in to see individual cartoons of different aspects of the work.
While work was carried out, two temporary bridges were constructed to maintain routes for cyclists.
We moved to Assen in August 2007. The work shown in this post dates from 2007 and 2008, just before I started writing the blog. However, I took some photos, and a very interesting book provides some others:
15th October 2007 - View from the Southern side of the canal. Soil is being dug from the other side of the canal to fill this side, thereby moving the banks of the canal on both sides North by two metres. (The same location can be seen on Google Streetview)
15th October 2007 - The sidewalk and cycle path on the Southern side of the canal are now usable though the road has not yet been started. At this time, I spoke to someone in the council office about how impressed I was with this new cycle path. He told me it was just the secondary route, and that the bicycle road on the Northern side of the canal would be the primary route for cycling. At the time the photo was taken, only the first layer of asphalt, black, is on the cycle path.
While the road was taken up, gas, electricity, water, telephone and other services renewed their infrastructure to avoid the road being damaged prematurely in the future. (Google Streetview)
8th April 2008 - At the far western end of the canal. In the 1960s, this part of the canal was filled in and a large flat road junction built at this location (you can see how it looked here). When we moved into our home, at the end of August 2007, the earth had just been broken for the start of construction of this bridge. Now it's in use. The result is that cyclists can now ride to the centre of the city without having to stop to cross the road. Drivers who used to go in this direction have been redirected onto another bridge further North. The canal has not yet been dug out, but it will be done - providing a way for boats also to get to the city centre. The red colour comes from red tarmac, not paint. Additional white lines have not yet been painted on. (Google Streetview)
8th April 2008 - After the existing crossings of the canal were removed, two temporary cycle bridges were put in place to maintain cycle routes across the canal. This is important as if people stop cycling it may be difficult to get them to start again. There are many examples of cyclists being helped around roadworks on this blog.
22nd April 2008 - On the Northern side of the canal, the existing road surface has been dug up to allow the centre to be changed to make this visually a bicycle road. New trees have been planted to replace those taken out when the canal was moved this way. (Google Streetview)
5th May 2008 - the centre is now partially in place on the bicycle road. One of the temporary cycle bridges is visible on the right of this photo. Much sand is left over from constructing the centre of the road. (Google Streetview)
30th June 2008 - the bicycle road is nearly finished. New trees have been planted to replace the old trees, the sand is dispersing. (Google Streetview)
30th June 2008 - the Southern side of the canal now has a road as well as cycle path, and the cycle path now has its final layer of smooth red tarmac as well as white painted markings, for the secondary route, and sidewalk. Note the small dark green bridge on the left of the photo which had historical significance. This was moved into a position where it could be used by cyclists on the bicycle road (primary route) on the other side of this canal. The cycle path has for some time now has its secondary layer of asphalt in red. (Google Streetview)
This bridge existed on the North side of the Vaart until the late 1970s, when motor traffic levels became too much for it.
This photo, taken in 2007, shows the same location from the 1970s until 2007. At this time it was was prioritized for motor vehicles.
In 2008, the historically significant Witterbrug was moved to this location in order to provide a route only for cyclists and pedestrians. Bollards are now used to prevent this also being a through route for cars. (Google Streetview)
View from the city centre of the end of the canal in 1960 and 2007. This had originally been the "Kolk" - a wide part at the end of the canal large enough for boats to be turned around. However, it was filled in and used as a car park.
The end of the canal now. The car park has gone. It is now possible to travel by boat to the city centre once again, and to turn a boat around once you get there. The road on the left of the canal is the southern side of the canal, with the road and secondary cycle route. The road on the right of the canal is the Northern side, which is the bicycle road. The canal remains the same width as before, but both canal banks have been moved about two metres North. (Google Streetview)
Works to the right of this photo are ongoing to build "De Nieuwe Kolk", which will combine library, theatre, cinema and arts facilities in an easy to reach place. This will include some underground car-parking facilities, in part to replace what has been lost here.
Google Earth images from 2007 and 2009
This is just one of the larger projects which have been completed in Assen since we moved here. The city is now in the planning stage for completely renovating another canal.
The photos from 2007 and earlier come from "Assen Verandert" - a book showing a lot of "before and after" photos which we reviewed three years ago. The title of the book means "Assen Changes", and it continues to change, meaning that a surprising number of 2007 images are now also representations of the past.
When I say that cycle paths here are quite often 4 m wide, I'm quite sure that a lot of people don't believe me.
An amusing way of demonstrating this occurred to me on Saturday. I put my bike sideways on a cycle path which is being resurfaced (so officially out of use, not that this stops many people) in a position where it wouldn't get in the way due to the pile of tiles for resurfacing the pedestrian path, but would demonstrate the width.
As you'll see, if it were possible to ride your bike sideways along here, it would still also be possible for someone to ride in the same manner in the opposite direction without any danger of crashing...
There was a little confusion, so I've added another photo, showing the same spot from the opposite direction. Here you can more clearly see the pedestrian path alongside the cycle path. It's been dug up in the first photo. Also you can see how a temporary dropped kerb was made to allow easy cycle access to the recommended detour route.
And why this cycle path ? It's nothing special as such, but it's part of the most direct route for us to the city centre so I come along here often. I took photos when I saw it was being improved.
I recently noticed that a bumpy spot on a cycle path and a rough path on a road nearby had both been marked for repair. Both marks appeared on the same day, and were in the same style, so presumably they were to be addressed at the same time.
On the left is the road and on the right is the cycle path. Minor damage which might not have been noted in other countries, or may have been left to grow into a pothole, is marked for repair.
A few days later, this is the situation.
And finally here it is after the work has been completed. In both cases, the surface is back to being completely smooth.
Now here's the point of this blog. Cycle paths and roads are treated equivalently. Both are maintained to a high standard, by the same people, with the same equipment. Both repairs come out of the maintenance budget. Cycle path repairs don't come out of the "cycling budget", which is around 30 euros per person per year and spent on new infrastructure, not fixing the old.
This is all a world away from the situation I was used to in the UK, where in fact it's quite likely that this level of damage to the surface would not have been considered to be enough to warrant repair in the first place.
The photo of the machinery and workmen was taken in the same place at the same time as the middle photos were taken.
On the way home from Groningen on Friday I found that the road had been redirected onto the cycle path. Sounds alarming, but actually there was nothing to worry about. Barriers had been erected and a tarmac temporary cycle path had been built so that cycling could continue as normal.
It's quite normal for this to happen. These are some of the other videos I've made of similar things which have happened in the past, some of which have also appeared on this blog tagged with "road works vs. the dutch cyclist":
Cycle-path is dug up
In this example, the road is converted to one-way with temporary traffic lights so that cycle flow is unimpeded.
Riding in a bus lane
Here the cycle-path was being resurfaced so bikes were directed into the bus-lane. This would have created a conflict between bikes and buses had buses not been temporarily banned from their own lane. Bikes are completely incompatible in the same lane as buses and therefore they are never mixed.
Riding on a dual carriageway
Here the cycle-path is again being worked on, so one half of a dual carriageway has been taken for cyclists while motorists use just the other side. Again, it removes any potential conflict which could have occurred had cyclists been expected to use the road with cars and trucks.
Sometimes there are temporary bridges installed, both small and large.
And why does this all happen ? Well, cycling is fragile. If people have bad experiences they may stop cycling. If it is desirable to create and maintain a high rate of cycling then a good degree of subjective safety must also be maintained.
If people are put off cycling, even temporarily, they may not return. For this reason, much effort is expended to make sure that cyclists are not endangered or inconvenienced by road works in the Netherlands. This film by Mark Wagenbuur shows two different examples of temporary bridges being built to maintain cycle routes in 's-Hertogenbosch.
See the labels below for more bridges, more from Den Bosch, more from Mark and more coverage of what happens to cyclists when there are road works.
The explanatory captions on this video are only visible if you view it on a computer and not on a mobile device.
Heading in the opposite direction
on the same path in summer. Note
the tractor path alongside. This is
an example of how routes are unravelled in the countryside.
This video is a combination of video shot in summer 2007 with some I shot on Sunday. The same path in fine weather and difficult weather is just as usable by cyclists when the temperature is -6 C and there is snow.
To maintain a high cycling rate, it has to be made easy to ride bikes all year around, even in rural areas. This cycle path is well used by adult commuters and also by school children who ride from villages into Assen.
A cycle route, shown in blue on the left, between Zeijen and a secondary school in Assen is 6.1 km. There is one traffic light on the route and the majority of it is on cycle paths or very low traffic roads. The equivalent driving route is shown using red. This route is 6.8 km in length and has two traffic lights. Cycle paths lead to cyclists making more direct journeys in greater safety whatever the time of year.
At the time of posting this, two days later, there is still about the same amount of snow on the ground, it's snowed lightly again this morning, and the cycle paths look just as clear. I took the dog for a walk by bike this morning, my children have both gone to their schools by bike (no schools are shut due to the weather), and my wife's gone to a meeting by bike. Tomorrow it's supposed to be -12 C, and I expect to ride to work in Groningen 30 km away. It's probably going to look a bit like it did two weeks ago.
A few days ago I was told a detail of how the gritting is performed so efficiently. The drivers follow routes determined in the summer and use GPS to turn the salt supply on and off. This prevents drivers from dumping all their salt too close to the depot, and is the reason why there are some very small patches which oddly seem not to have been gritted at all - they are due to mistakes made months ago when planning the routes.
I'm impressed by some of the details. For instance, these works required blocking the cycle path an diverting cyclists onto the sidewalk to go under a bridge. Gritting carries on under the bridge, and a temporary flush kerb has been installed.
Cyclists don't have so much of a problem due to snow as ice-skaters do. The local news reported that people running ice skating rinks which rely on the cold weather have problems because the snow causes the ice to be thinner.
Update 15 Jan: Google's Streetview car got very close to going along this route, on the road. They seem to have been put off by the bad surface, though, as they stop at the end of the smooth bit.
In 2007, when we moved to Assen, this road, Groningerstraat was being redeveloped. It is a popular route for cyclists as it provides the most direct route possible to the city centre from the North of the city.
The road was dug up to a considerable depth, all the way from the front gardens on one side of the street to the front gardens on the opposite side of the street. Then everything in between was replaced. A complete new road was built for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.
While the road was dug up, the electricity, gas, telephone, sewage and other services were updated at the same time. This is the normal way of organising things in the Netherlands because it prevents wrecking the new surface in order to do maintenance.
After
The new road was then constructed, including very much upgraded cycle facilities as you can see from these before and after photographs. The new cycle path is 2.5 m wide on each side of the road (each side is unidirectional), has a completely smooth surface (an upgrade from the old tiled surface) and provides much better segregation from motor vehicles. The cycle path has priority over every side road.
We were surprised not only at the quality of this work, but also at the price. A budget document from the city shows that the cost of this work for a 0.4 km section (both sides of the road so 0.8 km of cycle path) was just €200K (see the item on the second page: "fietspaden langs Groningerstraat, tussen Thorbeckelaan en Kanaal, verbreding fietspaden naar ca 2,5 m, rood asfalteren, voorrang bij de kruispunten, € 200.000"). That compares very well with costings I've seen for cycle paths of a much lower quality in the UK.
And not only is the amount taken from the cycling budget for this piece of work low by UK standards, but the total budget for cycling in the city is extraordinarily large by UK standards.
The budget for the two years covered by that document is arranged under different headings. Each heading has its own budget. These come to a total of over € 5.7 M to be spent on cycling in Assen over the two years covered by the budget. That works out as a cycling budget of 43 euros per resident per year over these two years.
The combination of low cost and high budget is what makes it possible to get things done so quickly.
The junctions were also renewed, including a simultaneous green junction shown in another blog post, which cost just €32000 (the first item in the budget document)
Before
Some more photos. One extra "before" and three "after" photos.
This level of subjective safety is vital to achieve a high cycling rate including all demographic groups.
Note also in this photo how on-road car parking was preserved for residents. It's important that residents concerns about car parking were also addressed when the new work was done. Not taking care of this can result in conflict between cyclists and residents, or cars being parked on the cycle path.
Also you'll see how it's possible for friends to ride beside one another, and how everything is possible while motor vehicles are kept at a distance.
The cycling rate in Assen is now 41% of all journeys. While it's not the highest rate in the Netherlands (Groningen has a higher cycling rate), that's still a higher rate than any city in other European countries. More journeys are made by bike here than are made by car. Infrastructure like this is has made this possible.
I've featured this road twice on this blog as a comparison with Gilbert Road in Cambridge, a road near where we used to live in the UK, which is much the same width and had much the same budget for cycle infrastructure, but which received far inferior reconstruction for about the same price.
It was also featured to show how secondary school children cycle along this street as part of their route to get to school from villages outside the city.
The explanatory captions on this video are only visible when you play it on a computer and not on a mobile device.
The photos were taken on Saturday afternoon when there were quite a lot of people about. I made this video on Sunday morning when the shops were shut and very few people were doing anything. However, the video shows the infrastructure of the entire length of the new part of Groningerstraat. This quality of cycle path makes for efficient as well as safe cycling.
Several other blog posts cover other aspects of this street's highly successful design cycling. Please click here.
