Nijmegen; Cycling City of the Netherlands! [461]

Nijmegen was one of the 5 finalists in the competition to become Cycling City of the Netherlands in 2016. Nijmegen won the competition! More information in the blog post: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p…

This is the city of Nijmegen on the river Waal. It is one of the 5 finalists to become “Cycling City of the Netherlands” in 2016. Many people enjoy cycling in this city of 172,000 people. A city which is far from flat.

Some of the outskirts are in a hillier terrain, but also in the city centre people sometimes rather push their bicycles than ride them. Nijmegen is proud of what it has achieved in 15 years of forward cycling policies.

In this time it has been able to build half of the desired high quality fast cycle route network. These routes are 4 metres wide and have a surface of red asphalt to indicate priority. Nijmegen also has good roundabouts, naturally with priority for cycling as well.

Even crossings with car routes sometimes have priority, when the cycle route is considered more important than the route for motor traffic. Grade separated crossings are always preferred, though. Details have to be right as well. The city uses as few bollards as possible.

Nijmegen was severely damaged in World War II, but it was restored well. In all but two of the car free city centre streets you are allowed to cycle. Buses also use some of these streets, that were clearly not designed for large vehicles.

It makes bus drivers careful and the buses not so intrusive. There is ample space to park your bicycle to go shopping. but the number of parking spaces will be increased even further. High numbers of parking spaces already exist around the main railway station.

In several facilities, both outdoors and indoors, a total of 10,000 bicycles can be parked. Main cycle routes come in many different shapes. One of which is the cycle street where cars are guest. The surface is always red asphalt, so drivers know that cycling has priority.

When a route has turns, you can always follow this red carpet and easily find your way. In the top 5 of what Nijmegen is most proud of the cycle bridge over the river Waal is number 1. Which is not very surprising.

In second place comes the cycle route to the university campus Heyendaal. This is indeed a route to be proud of, but the same can be said of the campus area itself. In third place the city mentions the bicycle parking facility right next to the main railway station.

It is still a bit underused, but indeed of a high quality. Fourth is a tunnel in the main cycle route to Arnhem. The Eisenhowertunnel has set a new standard for the rest of the city. Tunnels should be high enough and have receding walls, to make them spacious and light,

Which increases the feeling of social safety. Children took care of the art on the walls of this particular tunnel. In fifth place Nijmegen is proud of the bright green cycle viaduct “Het groentje” which provides a safe passage over a busy main road for a lot of cycling school children

There is always room for improvement. Nijmegen wants to decrease waiting times at traffic lights. Older routes should get better surfaces. Such reconstructions are already taking place at some locations, where older concrete slabs are being replaced by smooth asphalt Finally, Nijmegen wants to further improve its bicycle parking facilities.

Cycling in Nijmegen is really great. Mainly because most of the cycling infrastructure meets the highest standards. And yet the city wants to constantly improve the conditions even further. This makes it a great contestant in the competition. I would not be surprised if Nijmegen would indeed become

“Cycling City of the Netherlands” in 2016!