This video explains how a typical Dutch intersection functions also for walking and cycling. More information in the blog post: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p=13282
A typical Dutch intersection where this 50 km/h distributor road with protected cycleways… can be accessed from a 30 km/h neighborhood access street. Traffic on the main road has priority. Traffic from the minor road must give way to all other traffic. This is clear from the difference in road surface,
The fact that the intersection is raised and the yield signs. Combined with these so-called shark’s teeth on the surface. The surface of the cycleway continues over the crossing. A further indication that drivers must yield to people cycling. After a driver has dealt with cycling,
They can safely interact with other drivers on the intersection itself, without being in the way. Drivers keep the cycleway free, always. So people have room to cycle past a waiting car. The waiting space for motor traffic is big enough for a standard car, but also for a small van,
Or a bigger one. Turning traffic must yield to traffic going straight on. This includes people cycling and walking. Because of the design of the intersection drivers can see other road users well. They have space to wait and thanks to the low speeds, drivers are also willing to stop for other people.
When they are in a van and even when they drive a truck! Naturally, left-turning traffic must also yield to people cycling and walking. How easy is this intersection for pedestrians? People can and do cross the side street with confidence.
Thanks to the split roadway, crossing the main road is also very convenient. First you deal with crossing the cycleway. Then there is an island after which you cross one lane of traffic. The central refuge island gives you time to focus on traffic coming from the other direction
And finally you cross the cycleway on the other side of the road. Tactile paving guides people with impaired vision. The crossing is completely level… to make it easy for people in wheelchairs or people with strollers. Having to deal with traffic coming from one direction in only one lane at the time
Makes the crossing very simple. This type of intersection is safe for children, people in mobility scooters, and people on special bicycles. Thanks to the absence of traffic signals people have to interact with one another and since everything is so clear they can do that in a relaxed way.
35 Comments
Dutch open eyes and mind to learn right rules of code.
Its behind de bartenbrug.
Please show this to the idiots in San Francisco MTA who plan so-called "upgrades" to infra yet hate to include "waiting areas" for cars and consider bikes last, if at all
Don't pedestrians systematically get priority while crossing the main road ?
From the video it appears not, so I am wondering…
Here in Norway the waitingarea is allways(when there is such a cycleway constructed) to small for a car, so it block the cycleway . It is so irritating, we should do as the dutch!!
UK: Let's have another roundabout.
This makes too much sense. It would never make it in the US.
Bicycle helmets would help. Looks Like Netherlands have many $5.00/heads. Helmets save lives.
Living in Quebec we don't have traffic laws but merely traffic suggestions.
Aqui no Brasil os motoristas de carro passam por cima dos ciclistas
Brillant
If this was Chicago there would be bumper to bumper traffic and idiots would be driving in the bike lane to bypass the traffic. Well done Dutch!!!
Wow the Dutch think of every possible outcome. Thinking of not just cyclists and pedestrians, but families with strollers and people in wheelchairs. Here in the US there’s ramps for wheelchairs but even those are difficult for people to use. They’re not level and harder for elderly people to use.
I'm gonna dream this
City clean
The German solution would have been a lot of traffic lights. And a lot of waiting times that comes with traffic lights.
I call upon my government: Spent less for military but more for cycling infrastructure!
Wow, a govt that cares for its citizens. Seriously a rare sight. Our govt is selling out the forests and public spaces to businesses. As if economic growth is the only thing that matters now.
Great job thanks 😊
You’re doing a great service showcasing this to… the world, basically. I’m Dutch but I’m living in London, and cycling here is much more of an undertaking. I’m hoping that the current lockdowns have allowed to more rapidly improve things here. There is a plan to do that, but we won’t see this level of sophistication here for a long time, if at all.
So civilized! I saw a few mopeds and motorbikes in the bike lane, why are they doing that?
I see issues implementing something like this in the US. It would work if: it was used in newly built towns with planned, slower than usual, streets, if the island areas were designed a little bigger, and bikes avoided them during rush hour or fewer people used cars. Please show what is done when the street needs to be dug up.
Genuine question: at 1:33 why is there a car driving on the bike lane in the background? It seems to be getting out of a parking spot, but couldn't it just go and join the main road directly?
Where do cyclists turn left into the 30km/h street from the main road?
One, this intersection started with a very wide space so all these areas could be provided. Two, the Dutch don't spend all their money on weapons and killing people in other countries so can provide things to the people.
Excellent design, excellent video. Very convincing. Thanks!
Fantastic setup but what happens if somebody doesn’t conform to your way of thinking?
this is pure dutch poetry
Dutch know how to build an intersection
This is what the US is quite sorely missing. We need to build intersections like this over here.
this design is as thing of beauty
look, ma! no traffic lights!
what's really a convincing point for skeptics, is the middle fat area only widens at the intersection, so it's not like you need a giant-width divider for the entire length of the road, which would incur all kinds of objections about wasted space and inefficient traffic lanes.
And the widening occuring at the intersection means cars need to slow down enough to make the slight curvature, acting as a purely natural and 0 energy requiring design, unlike traffic lights.
And that slight natural curve prepares the driver for an even sharper full 90 degree turn, whether they're making that turn or going straight.
That slight natural curve also points the driver's slight line directly at the oncoming bike lane traffic, naturally making drivers more aware of bikes and pedestrians.
it's beautiful.
a design that is passive, and accomplishes so many things with cheap simple tweaks, like an aikido master.
A slight improvement could be made even still. Drawing arrows of traffic direction near the pedestrian crosswalk.
This would make it clear to pedestrians which way to look at which sections of crossings.
Natives wouldn't need it, but it definitely would only make it more clear to children get used to things as well as to foreigners who come from countries that drive on the opposite side.
Best part is, this only costs a bit of paint.
NOTE: All the car drivers started cycling when they where youngat some point so there is a good understanding also between cars and bikes.