It is generally known that bicyclists dislike detours. Planners of bicycle networks do not use th... more It is generally known that bicyclists dislike detours. Planners of bicycle networks do not use this fact sufficiently in a systematic way. Often no method is used at all. In this paper a number of existing theories are discussed and evaluated on their usefulness. Finally a simple method is given for the optimisation of a bicycle network in an existing town structure with the help of the usual traffic planning techniques. The method takes the town structure and the relationships of the cyclists into account. It gives an opportunity to weigh priorities and to evaluate the objectives of the plan. (TRRL)
The Dutch study center for traffic engineering has made recommendations for a sinus layout for a ... more The Dutch study center for traffic engineering has made recommendations for a sinus layout for a road hump. This was done in 1979. It is shown however that this drop form is not applied everywhere. The hump caters for a driving speed of 30 km/hour, the speed for which this hump was developed. Effective designs for other driving speeds are required. In this paper other designs of road humps are described as they are related to aspects of traffic safety, public works, costs etc. For the covering abstract of this conference see IRRD 818031.
Speed plays an important role in the road safety process. It explains the severity and often the occurrence of the accident. The reasons are:
- collision energy increases quadratically with speed;
- the braking distance becomes disproportionately longer;
- the driver's field of vision becomes narrower;
- the perceptibility of the car by other road users is reduced.
It is therefore understandable that measures aimed at traffic safety are often aimed at reducing speed. In addition, and not unimportantly, speed affects the quality of life in a street. Developments such as residential areas and 30 km/h zones have responded to this and the recently published Long-Term Traffic Safety Plan gives high priority to the enforcement of speed limits.
This article described the "plan for cycle tracks for the breda area" in which 120 meas... more This article described the "plan for cycle tracks for the breda area" in which 120 measures were planned to improve the infrastructure for cyclists. A method to determine urgencies and priorities was developed to indicate which measures would contribute most. Safety and comfort were taken into consideration. The other important aspect was the costs. Priority was given to measures with the highest cost-effectiveness. (TRRL)
If one wants to improve the bike and ride system then one has to begin with searching for the wea... more If one wants to improve the bike and ride system then one has to begin with searching for the weakest link in the following chain: routes to the station, layout of the station square, parking the bicycle, carriage of bicycles in public transport, bicycle hire, parking for a second bicycle. A good survey is essential to find the weakest link. The best source of information is the cyclist himself. He can indicate the shortest routes and the bottlenecks on this route, as well as problems of safety, detours, and the waste of time at intersections. Generally the problems and so their solutions too, can be considered under two headings: decreasing journey time and availability. The evaluation study of the Delft cycle network has shown many solutions to these problems. The question remains who shall finance the bike and ride system. A plea is given for more governmental financial support. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 816307.
Scholars often describe the history of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) from an exclusive urban... more Scholars often describe the history of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) from an exclusive urban development perspective (linear or finger cities) or from a limited mobility perspective (Public Transit). In these histories, walking is described as the yardstick for a station's catchment area. Using primary sources, this article shows how between 1960 and 1990 the Dutch railroads played a forgotten but key and unique role in enriching the TOD concept in the densely populated Western Netherlands with the bicycle as a feeder mode. This created a spatial model of a belt with compact bicycle towns along railroad lines. In the process, the railroad reinforced by local and national policies since then helped create cycling-based rather than walking-based fifteen-minute cities that generated larger catchment zones.
27 October, Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting , 2020
The cyclist conquers the street in cities where the car was dominant until recently. But how safe... more The cyclist conquers the street in cities where the car was dominant until recently. But how safe will it be if, after this Corona period, the cyclist has to share space again with the car? The bike is unstable and has no crumple zone. Cyclists are vulnerable when they have to share space with many fast-moving motorists. Most fatal accidents occur in those situations. And if bicycle facilities are poorly dimensioned and take insufficient account of the characteristics of bicycle and cyclists, this is a source of serious accidents, even without a car close to. In this presentation I look back on the history of the separation between fast traffic and slow traffic. This principle was already part of CIAM's Charter and has been consistently implemented in all spatial plans in the Netherlands for many years. However, the Netherlands is currently unable to further improve safety with this strategy. Is this the dialectics of advantage or do we really need to intervene in the dominance of car traffic? Or should we look for improvements much more accurately, with in-depth research? I conclude with a perspective on the future.
By car, people ride smoothly from door to door without changing trains. Can cooperation between t... more By car, people ride smoothly from door to door without changing trains. Can cooperation between the flexible cyclist, who can effortlessly reach every address in cities, and the train, which can quickly bridge the distance between compact 15-minute cities, deliver that quality? A question politicians and scientists are increasingly asking to reduce nuisance car use in urban areas. And in doing so, many look to cycling country Holland. Why is it that the bicycle storages there are bulging and at ten o'clock you can't get an OV-fiets (public transport bike)? What factors have played a role?
Jan Ploeger's Het Verstandshuwelijk describes the emergence of informal chain mobility from the perspective of cyclists. Historical research in Dutch archives, newspapers and “gray” literature reveals that cyclists discovered the useful combination of bicycle and train early on and kept the railroad company on its toes when developing improvements. It shows how influential cyclist organizations were in the development of good bicycle parking and rental facilities at Dutch stations. Travelers, often tourists, were early to take their bikes on the train. Convenient, because then they also had a bike on arrival for the rest of their vacation. The first commuters also came to the station by bike but did not want to take their expensive bikes with them every day and organized their own safe storage. They enlisted their association ANWB to advocate guarded bicycle parking with the railroads. In 1914 the NS-Bewaarplaatsen Maatschappij was founded. All major railway stations in the Netherlands received guarded bicycle parking facilities within a few years. Architects thereby discovered the importance of the station as a transfer machine, with Amsterdam's Amstel Station as the finest example.
The cooperation between bicycle and train seemed natural. There were not so many alternatives. That changed in the Netherlands starting in 1960. The car became popular and the convenience of smooth door-to-door travel threatened train transportation. Theorists published insights about the catchment area back in the 1930s but presented passenger flows as a natural phenomenon: like water in the river. Economists believed that the market should solve obstacles to and from the station. An insight still described as Mobility as a service (MaaS). Chain mobility came into the picture of urban planners because of the positive effect of rail transportation combined with pedestrians and cyclists as feeders to the system. Scholars gave this the designation Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Planners working for NS in the 1960s discovered that cycling significantly increased the catchment area of a station, for the same travel time. The Dutch cyclists thereby benefited from national spatial policies that, since 1958, consistently focused on keeping cities compact and encouraged housing development near stations. The case of Houten, a suburb of Utrecht, shows how the NS converted the TOD-theory into the development of an ideal bicycle city, connected to good public transport.
In the 1970s, the Fietsersbond took over the role of the ANWB in convincing the NS for good bicycle facilities. Taking bikes along on the train was preserved and thanks to pressure from the Fietsersbond, the NS started its Stalling 21 project. That led to the Action Plan for Bicycle Parking at Stations as cooperation between many parties, with the agreement "First 24 hours of free guarded parking" at its core. Local authorities help pay for the covered storage to prevent bikes from being left unattended on station squares. Het Verstandshuwelijk van fiets en trein concludes with the innovation of the weakest link in the mobility chain: the last mile. The now widely used OV-fiets is a textbook example of successful innovation as an interaction between social and technical processes.
Between 1970 and 1995, the total distance traveled by the Dutch population grew from over 100 to ... more Between 1970 and 1995, the total distance traveled by the Dutch population grew from over 100 to almost 190 billion kilometers a year. The increase in mobility is mainly due to the increase in passenger kilometers with the passenger car. Ever since numbers of mobility are collected, the number of kilometers is steadily increasing. A break with this trend seems far away. Where does this growth come from, and is there ever an end to our transport hunger? Are it only the miles that grow or are we becoming more active?
In this contribution we will focus on these questions. First of all, by considering the start of the mobility observations, then by trying to unravel the factors that send mobility and finally by looking at the future.
In physical planning policy the bicycle plays only a minor part, occurring often only at the end ... more In physical planning policy the bicycle plays only a minor part, occurring often only at the end of the drafting process. Yet, the opportunities for using the bicycle are strongly determined by planning preconditions .
The search for the ideal city is constantly repeated in history. The line of approach differs from functional, military and economic reasons to reasons concerning quality of life. Up until 40 years ago travelling restricted decentralization in that the accessibility required a compact physical planning. It was the availability of the car that made the cities spread out. As a consequence in principle there was no gain of time by using a car. The "bicycle city" is a crisis scheme, developed in Amsterdam and Copenhagen in the 1930s. The oil crisis made the bicycle fashionable again and at present it is the environmental issue which puts the bicycle in the spotlight once more. The increase of mobility in the past decades resulted in a sharp fall in the transport performance of the bicycle between 1960 and 1975. The expanding city and increased commuting have undermined the bicycle's competitive position. And yet, it is hardly necessary, when using the cycling mobility of the average 20-year-old, to accomplish a far-reaching rearrangement of social activities, in order to realize a car-free society. For that matter, complaints about the insufficient accessibility are rather exaggerated when the chance of delay is the only criterion. From transport facilities other than the car considerably less quality is required.
Even if a restriction of the average travelling distances is taken as the basic assumption for physical planning, then still a number of different approaches would be possible. The decision about the approach would depend strongly on the view of how society is operating socially and economically. Reducing travelling distances could then be cast in a number of concepts, such as:
- the autarkical community with a mingling of living and working; - the compact garden city; - the integration of several urban functions into one entity or - the "Technopolis" , in which it is no longer required to to leave the house at all, because of highly advanced technology.
The ideal bicycle city should have, among others, the following characteristics: - mobility is measured in number of journeys, not kilometers; - living should be rewarded, not travelling; - living, working and recreation are mingled and - the accessibility by public transport is excellent.
Sustainable Transport. Planning for walking and cycling in urban environments, 2003
When bicycles were first introduced, planning was no problem at all. The only road-building worry... more When bicycles were first introduced, planning was no problem at all. The only road-building worry was the surfaces and it was not for nothing that Dunlop used its first pneumatic tyre for a bicycle. The first cycle tracks were designed mainly for improving the cyclists' comfort. Planning for cyclists would be easy if the motorcar had not arrived. The arrival of the car caused an enormous change to the road network. In 1938 a bicycle advocate in The Netherlands argued in a pamphlet against bicycle taxes that 'cyclists who in early days could ride on public roads without danger are nowadays pushed aside the road by the increasing and still faster car traffic' (Reitsma, 1938). In the same year, traffic victims were presented as a specific group in statistics of accidents for the first time. Subsequently, for reasons of road safety, cyclists and motor vehicles were separated more often. Though cycletracks were also constructed to ensure a faster, unobstructed flow of more rapid forms of traffic, the approach to bicycle traffic was purely technical in terms of highway management, and definitely not integral. Developments over recent decades have changed the way transport is viewed (CROW, 1992). Rapid increases in living standards have led to an enormous growth in (car) mobility. The other side of this has been the enormous pressure put on the environment in terms of health and safety. Traffic problems can only be solved by an integral approach to transport as a system and although in the present situation all elements of integral planning are included in the construction phase, the system is still far from perfect (Ploeger, 1988).
In the green transport system all components are used on their strongest points. Next, this chapt... more In the green transport system all components are used on their strongest points. Next, this chapter discusses the interaction between town planning and traffic. Less kilometres is much better for the environment and society than green kilometres.The future role of the bicycle in this system will be studied in depth, based on the experience in the Netherlands. Finally, an integrated traffic system can only operate in an optimal way if there are enough opportunities for dual mode use.
The Netherlands has its road construction policy quite well in order. The construction program, a... more The Netherlands has its road construction policy quite well in order. The construction program, as planned in 1990, has been fully executed (measured in lane length) after 20 years. There are, however, fewer motorways built on new traces, but that is largely compensated by the widening of existing roads. More than one and a half times so many roads have been widened than expected in 1990. Most lanes have been opened over the past five years.
The 1990's main road network, developed on the basis of traffic models, has proved robust. "Political" additions of missing links, added by parliamentary amendment afterwards, have almost disappeared from the chart later. The addition was not based on traffic analysis.
It is noteworthy that long-term maintenance costs for main roads are of the same order as railways expenditure. However, the use of main roads, measured in numbers of passenger kilometers, is a factor six higher than the use of the railways. That requires further analysis. Is the use of the train really so expensive or does the incentive for efficiency not be given well?
The search for “smart” or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based mobility solutions... more The search for “smart” or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo anarchist Luud Schimmelpennink is well-known for designing mobility solutions and for being the driving force behind the 1965 “white-bike” experience. Less known is his 1968 project for shared electric cars (“Witkar”), which laid the foundations for the ICT-based bicycle sharing systems as we know today. By combining his talent for innovation with activism, he created a socially embedded design that could be part of the public transit system. Based on primary sources, we argue that these sociotechnical experiences paved the way for today’s mainstream bicycle sharing projects worldwide. We then show how since the 1990s, the Dutch railroad’s public transit bicycle (OV-fiets) has transformed Schimmelpennink’s original anarchist idea of bike sharing into a sustainable public transit system – a feat that has eluded other programmes worldwide: the in...
The search for “smart” or ICT-based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo... more The search for “smart” or ICT-based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo anarchist Luud Schimmelpennink is well-known for designing mobility solutions and for being the driving force behind the 1965 “white-bike” experience. Less known is his 1968 project for shared electric cars (“Witkar”), which laid the foundations for the ICT-based bicycle sharing systems as we know today. By combining his talent for innovation with activism, he created a socially embedded design that could be part of the public transit system. Based on primary sources, we argue that these sociotechnical experiences paved the way for today’s mainstream bicycle sharing projects worldwide. We then show how since the 1990s, the Dutch railroad’s public transit bicycle (OV-fiets) has transformed Schimmelpennink’s original anarchist idea of bike sharing into a sustainable public transit system. It is a feat that has eluded other programs worldwide: the integration of the bicycle’s share in a door-to-door experience. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022526620908264
It is generally known that bicyclists dislike detours. Planners of bicycle networks do not use th... more It is generally known that bicyclists dislike detours. Planners of bicycle networks do not use this fact sufficiently in a systematic way. Often no method is used at all. In this paper a number of existing theories are discussed and evaluated on their usefulness. Finally a simple method is given for the optimisation of a bicycle network in an existing town structure with the help of the usual traffic planning techniques. The method takes the town structure and the relationships of the cyclists into account. It gives an opportunity to weigh priorities and to evaluate the objectives of the plan. (TRRL)
The Dutch study center for traffic engineering has made recommendations for a sinus layout for a ... more The Dutch study center for traffic engineering has made recommendations for a sinus layout for a road hump. This was done in 1979. It is shown however that this drop form is not applied everywhere. The hump caters for a driving speed of 30 km/hour, the speed for which this hump was developed. Effective designs for other driving speeds are required. In this paper other designs of road humps are described as they are related to aspects of traffic safety, public works, costs etc. For the covering abstract of this conference see IRRD 818031.
Speed plays an important role in the road safety process. It explains the severity and often the occurrence of the accident. The reasons are:
- collision energy increases quadratically with speed;
- the braking distance becomes disproportionately longer;
- the driver's field of vision becomes narrower;
- the perceptibility of the car by other road users is reduced.
It is therefore understandable that measures aimed at traffic safety are often aimed at reducing speed. In addition, and not unimportantly, speed affects the quality of life in a street. Developments such as residential areas and 30 km/h zones have responded to this and the recently published Long-Term Traffic Safety Plan gives high priority to the enforcement of speed limits.
This article described the "plan for cycle tracks for the breda area" in which 120 meas... more This article described the "plan for cycle tracks for the breda area" in which 120 measures were planned to improve the infrastructure for cyclists. A method to determine urgencies and priorities was developed to indicate which measures would contribute most. Safety and comfort were taken into consideration. The other important aspect was the costs. Priority was given to measures with the highest cost-effectiveness. (TRRL)
If one wants to improve the bike and ride system then one has to begin with searching for the wea... more If one wants to improve the bike and ride system then one has to begin with searching for the weakest link in the following chain: routes to the station, layout of the station square, parking the bicycle, carriage of bicycles in public transport, bicycle hire, parking for a second bicycle. A good survey is essential to find the weakest link. The best source of information is the cyclist himself. He can indicate the shortest routes and the bottlenecks on this route, as well as problems of safety, detours, and the waste of time at intersections. Generally the problems and so their solutions too, can be considered under two headings: decreasing journey time and availability. The evaluation study of the Delft cycle network has shown many solutions to these problems. The question remains who shall finance the bike and ride system. A plea is given for more governmental financial support. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 816307.
Scholars often describe the history of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) from an exclusive urban... more Scholars often describe the history of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) from an exclusive urban development perspective (linear or finger cities) or from a limited mobility perspective (Public Transit). In these histories, walking is described as the yardstick for a station's catchment area. Using primary sources, this article shows how between 1960 and 1990 the Dutch railroads played a forgotten but key and unique role in enriching the TOD concept in the densely populated Western Netherlands with the bicycle as a feeder mode. This created a spatial model of a belt with compact bicycle towns along railroad lines. In the process, the railroad reinforced by local and national policies since then helped create cycling-based rather than walking-based fifteen-minute cities that generated larger catchment zones.
27 October, Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting , 2020
The cyclist conquers the street in cities where the car was dominant until recently. But how safe... more The cyclist conquers the street in cities where the car was dominant until recently. But how safe will it be if, after this Corona period, the cyclist has to share space again with the car? The bike is unstable and has no crumple zone. Cyclists are vulnerable when they have to share space with many fast-moving motorists. Most fatal accidents occur in those situations. And if bicycle facilities are poorly dimensioned and take insufficient account of the characteristics of bicycle and cyclists, this is a source of serious accidents, even without a car close to. In this presentation I look back on the history of the separation between fast traffic and slow traffic. This principle was already part of CIAM's Charter and has been consistently implemented in all spatial plans in the Netherlands for many years. However, the Netherlands is currently unable to further improve safety with this strategy. Is this the dialectics of advantage or do we really need to intervene in the dominance of car traffic? Or should we look for improvements much more accurately, with in-depth research? I conclude with a perspective on the future.
By car, people ride smoothly from door to door without changing trains. Can cooperation between t... more By car, people ride smoothly from door to door without changing trains. Can cooperation between the flexible cyclist, who can effortlessly reach every address in cities, and the train, which can quickly bridge the distance between compact 15-minute cities, deliver that quality? A question politicians and scientists are increasingly asking to reduce nuisance car use in urban areas. And in doing so, many look to cycling country Holland. Why is it that the bicycle storages there are bulging and at ten o'clock you can't get an OV-fiets (public transport bike)? What factors have played a role?
Jan Ploeger's Het Verstandshuwelijk describes the emergence of informal chain mobility from the perspective of cyclists. Historical research in Dutch archives, newspapers and “gray” literature reveals that cyclists discovered the useful combination of bicycle and train early on and kept the railroad company on its toes when developing improvements. It shows how influential cyclist organizations were in the development of good bicycle parking and rental facilities at Dutch stations. Travelers, often tourists, were early to take their bikes on the train. Convenient, because then they also had a bike on arrival for the rest of their vacation. The first commuters also came to the station by bike but did not want to take their expensive bikes with them every day and organized their own safe storage. They enlisted their association ANWB to advocate guarded bicycle parking with the railroads. In 1914 the NS-Bewaarplaatsen Maatschappij was founded. All major railway stations in the Netherlands received guarded bicycle parking facilities within a few years. Architects thereby discovered the importance of the station as a transfer machine, with Amsterdam's Amstel Station as the finest example.
The cooperation between bicycle and train seemed natural. There were not so many alternatives. That changed in the Netherlands starting in 1960. The car became popular and the convenience of smooth door-to-door travel threatened train transportation. Theorists published insights about the catchment area back in the 1930s but presented passenger flows as a natural phenomenon: like water in the river. Economists believed that the market should solve obstacles to and from the station. An insight still described as Mobility as a service (MaaS). Chain mobility came into the picture of urban planners because of the positive effect of rail transportation combined with pedestrians and cyclists as feeders to the system. Scholars gave this the designation Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Planners working for NS in the 1960s discovered that cycling significantly increased the catchment area of a station, for the same travel time. The Dutch cyclists thereby benefited from national spatial policies that, since 1958, consistently focused on keeping cities compact and encouraged housing development near stations. The case of Houten, a suburb of Utrecht, shows how the NS converted the TOD-theory into the development of an ideal bicycle city, connected to good public transport.
In the 1970s, the Fietsersbond took over the role of the ANWB in convincing the NS for good bicycle facilities. Taking bikes along on the train was preserved and thanks to pressure from the Fietsersbond, the NS started its Stalling 21 project. That led to the Action Plan for Bicycle Parking at Stations as cooperation between many parties, with the agreement "First 24 hours of free guarded parking" at its core. Local authorities help pay for the covered storage to prevent bikes from being left unattended on station squares. Het Verstandshuwelijk van fiets en trein concludes with the innovation of the weakest link in the mobility chain: the last mile. The now widely used OV-fiets is a textbook example of successful innovation as an interaction between social and technical processes.
Between 1970 and 1995, the total distance traveled by the Dutch population grew from over 100 to ... more Between 1970 and 1995, the total distance traveled by the Dutch population grew from over 100 to almost 190 billion kilometers a year. The increase in mobility is mainly due to the increase in passenger kilometers with the passenger car. Ever since numbers of mobility are collected, the number of kilometers is steadily increasing. A break with this trend seems far away. Where does this growth come from, and is there ever an end to our transport hunger? Are it only the miles that grow or are we becoming more active?
In this contribution we will focus on these questions. First of all, by considering the start of the mobility observations, then by trying to unravel the factors that send mobility and finally by looking at the future.
In physical planning policy the bicycle plays only a minor part, occurring often only at the end ... more In physical planning policy the bicycle plays only a minor part, occurring often only at the end of the drafting process. Yet, the opportunities for using the bicycle are strongly determined by planning preconditions .
The search for the ideal city is constantly repeated in history. The line of approach differs from functional, military and economic reasons to reasons concerning quality of life. Up until 40 years ago travelling restricted decentralization in that the accessibility required a compact physical planning. It was the availability of the car that made the cities spread out. As a consequence in principle there was no gain of time by using a car. The "bicycle city" is a crisis scheme, developed in Amsterdam and Copenhagen in the 1930s. The oil crisis made the bicycle fashionable again and at present it is the environmental issue which puts the bicycle in the spotlight once more. The increase of mobility in the past decades resulted in a sharp fall in the transport performance of the bicycle between 1960 and 1975. The expanding city and increased commuting have undermined the bicycle's competitive position. And yet, it is hardly necessary, when using the cycling mobility of the average 20-year-old, to accomplish a far-reaching rearrangement of social activities, in order to realize a car-free society. For that matter, complaints about the insufficient accessibility are rather exaggerated when the chance of delay is the only criterion. From transport facilities other than the car considerably less quality is required.
Even if a restriction of the average travelling distances is taken as the basic assumption for physical planning, then still a number of different approaches would be possible. The decision about the approach would depend strongly on the view of how society is operating socially and economically. Reducing travelling distances could then be cast in a number of concepts, such as:
- the autarkical community with a mingling of living and working; - the compact garden city; - the integration of several urban functions into one entity or - the "Technopolis" , in which it is no longer required to to leave the house at all, because of highly advanced technology.
The ideal bicycle city should have, among others, the following characteristics: - mobility is measured in number of journeys, not kilometers; - living should be rewarded, not travelling; - living, working and recreation are mingled and - the accessibility by public transport is excellent.
Sustainable Transport. Planning for walking and cycling in urban environments, 2003
When bicycles were first introduced, planning was no problem at all. The only road-building worry... more When bicycles were first introduced, planning was no problem at all. The only road-building worry was the surfaces and it was not for nothing that Dunlop used its first pneumatic tyre for a bicycle. The first cycle tracks were designed mainly for improving the cyclists' comfort. Planning for cyclists would be easy if the motorcar had not arrived. The arrival of the car caused an enormous change to the road network. In 1938 a bicycle advocate in The Netherlands argued in a pamphlet against bicycle taxes that 'cyclists who in early days could ride on public roads without danger are nowadays pushed aside the road by the increasing and still faster car traffic' (Reitsma, 1938). In the same year, traffic victims were presented as a specific group in statistics of accidents for the first time. Subsequently, for reasons of road safety, cyclists and motor vehicles were separated more often. Though cycletracks were also constructed to ensure a faster, unobstructed flow of more rapid forms of traffic, the approach to bicycle traffic was purely technical in terms of highway management, and definitely not integral. Developments over recent decades have changed the way transport is viewed (CROW, 1992). Rapid increases in living standards have led to an enormous growth in (car) mobility. The other side of this has been the enormous pressure put on the environment in terms of health and safety. Traffic problems can only be solved by an integral approach to transport as a system and although in the present situation all elements of integral planning are included in the construction phase, the system is still far from perfect (Ploeger, 1988).
In the green transport system all components are used on their strongest points. Next, this chapt... more In the green transport system all components are used on their strongest points. Next, this chapter discusses the interaction between town planning and traffic. Less kilometres is much better for the environment and society than green kilometres.The future role of the bicycle in this system will be studied in depth, based on the experience in the Netherlands. Finally, an integrated traffic system can only operate in an optimal way if there are enough opportunities for dual mode use.
The Netherlands has its road construction policy quite well in order. The construction program, a... more The Netherlands has its road construction policy quite well in order. The construction program, as planned in 1990, has been fully executed (measured in lane length) after 20 years. There are, however, fewer motorways built on new traces, but that is largely compensated by the widening of existing roads. More than one and a half times so many roads have been widened than expected in 1990. Most lanes have been opened over the past five years.
The 1990's main road network, developed on the basis of traffic models, has proved robust. "Political" additions of missing links, added by parliamentary amendment afterwards, have almost disappeared from the chart later. The addition was not based on traffic analysis.
It is noteworthy that long-term maintenance costs for main roads are of the same order as railways expenditure. However, the use of main roads, measured in numbers of passenger kilometers, is a factor six higher than the use of the railways. That requires further analysis. Is the use of the train really so expensive or does the incentive for efficiency not be given well?
The search for “smart” or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based mobility solutions... more The search for “smart” or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo anarchist Luud Schimmelpennink is well-known for designing mobility solutions and for being the driving force behind the 1965 “white-bike” experience. Less known is his 1968 project for shared electric cars (“Witkar”), which laid the foundations for the ICT-based bicycle sharing systems as we know today. By combining his talent for innovation with activism, he created a socially embedded design that could be part of the public transit system. Based on primary sources, we argue that these sociotechnical experiences paved the way for today’s mainstream bicycle sharing projects worldwide. We then show how since the 1990s, the Dutch railroad’s public transit bicycle (OV-fiets) has transformed Schimmelpennink’s original anarchist idea of bike sharing into a sustainable public transit system – a feat that has eluded other programmes worldwide: the in...
The search for “smart” or ICT-based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo... more The search for “smart” or ICT-based mobility solutions goes back to at least the 1960s. The Provo anarchist Luud Schimmelpennink is well-known for designing mobility solutions and for being the driving force behind the 1965 “white-bike” experience. Less known is his 1968 project for shared electric cars (“Witkar”), which laid the foundations for the ICT-based bicycle sharing systems as we know today. By combining his talent for innovation with activism, he created a socially embedded design that could be part of the public transit system. Based on primary sources, we argue that these sociotechnical experiences paved the way for today’s mainstream bicycle sharing projects worldwide. We then show how since the 1990s, the Dutch railroad’s public transit bicycle (OV-fiets) has transformed Schimmelpennink’s original anarchist idea of bike sharing into a sustainable public transit system. It is a feat that has eluded other programs worldwide: the integration of the bicycle’s share in a door-to-door experience. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022526620908264
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Speed plays an important role in the road safety process. It explains the severity and often the occurrence of the accident. The reasons are:
- collision energy increases quadratically with speed;
- the braking distance becomes disproportionately longer;
- the driver's field of vision becomes narrower;
- the perceptibility of the car by other road users is reduced.
It is therefore understandable that measures aimed at traffic safety are often aimed at reducing speed. In addition, and not unimportantly, speed affects the quality of life in a street. Developments such as residential areas and 30 km/h zones have responded to this and the recently published Long-Term Traffic Safety Plan gives high priority to the enforcement of speed limits.
In this presentation I look back on the history of the separation between fast traffic and slow traffic. This principle was already part of CIAM's Charter and has been consistently implemented in all spatial plans in the Netherlands for many years. However, the Netherlands is currently unable to further improve safety with this strategy. Is this the dialectics of advantage or do we really need to intervene in the dominance of car traffic? Or should we look for improvements much more accurately, with in-depth research? I conclude with a perspective on the future.
Jan Ploeger's Het Verstandshuwelijk describes the emergence of informal chain mobility from the perspective of cyclists. Historical research in Dutch archives, newspapers and “gray” literature reveals that cyclists discovered the useful combination of bicycle and train early on and kept the railroad company on its toes when developing improvements. It shows how influential cyclist organizations were in the development of good bicycle parking and rental facilities at Dutch stations. Travelers, often tourists, were early to take their bikes on the train. Convenient, because then they also had a bike on arrival for the rest of their vacation. The first commuters also came to the station by bike but did not want to take their expensive bikes with them every day and organized their own safe storage. They enlisted their association ANWB to advocate guarded bicycle parking with the railroads. In 1914 the NS-Bewaarplaatsen Maatschappij was founded. All major railway stations in the Netherlands received guarded bicycle parking facilities within a few years. Architects thereby discovered the importance of the station as a transfer machine, with Amsterdam's Amstel Station as the finest example.
The cooperation between bicycle and train seemed natural. There were not so many alternatives. That changed in the Netherlands starting in 1960. The car became popular and the convenience of smooth door-to-door travel threatened train transportation. Theorists published insights about the catchment area back in the 1930s but presented passenger flows as a natural phenomenon: like water in the river. Economists believed that the market should solve obstacles to and from the station. An insight still described as Mobility as a service (MaaS). Chain mobility came into the picture of urban planners because of the positive effect of rail transportation combined with pedestrians and cyclists as feeders to the system. Scholars gave this the designation Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Planners working for NS in the 1960s discovered that cycling significantly increased the catchment area of a station, for the same travel time. The Dutch cyclists thereby benefited from national spatial policies that, since 1958, consistently focused on keeping cities compact and encouraged housing development near stations. The case of Houten, a suburb of Utrecht, shows how the NS converted the TOD-theory into the development of an ideal bicycle city, connected to good public transport.
In the 1970s, the Fietsersbond took over the role of the ANWB in convincing the NS for good bicycle facilities. Taking bikes along on the train was preserved and thanks to pressure from the Fietsersbond, the NS started its Stalling 21 project. That led to the Action Plan for Bicycle Parking at Stations as cooperation between many parties, with the agreement "First 24 hours of free guarded parking" at its core. Local authorities help pay for the covered storage to prevent bikes from being left unattended on station squares. Het Verstandshuwelijk van fiets en trein concludes with the innovation of the weakest link in the mobility chain: the last mile. The now widely used OV-fiets is a textbook example of successful innovation as an interaction between social and technical processes.
In this contribution we will focus on these questions. First of all, by considering the start of the mobility observations, then by trying to unravel the factors that send mobility and finally by looking at the future.
The search for the ideal city is constantly repeated in history. The line of approach differs from functional, military and economic reasons to reasons concerning quality of life. Up until 40 years ago travelling restricted decentralization in that the accessibility required a compact physical planning. It was the availability of the car that made the cities spread out. As a consequence in principle there was no gain of time by using a car. The "bicycle city" is a crisis scheme, developed in Amsterdam and Copenhagen in the 1930s. The oil crisis made the bicycle fashionable again and at present it is the environmental issue which puts the bicycle in the spotlight once more. The increase of mobility in the past decades resulted in a sharp fall in the transport performance of the bicycle between 1960 and 1975. The expanding city and increased commuting
have undermined the bicycle's competitive position. And yet, it is hardly necessary, when using the cycling mobility of the average 20-year-old, to accomplish a far-reaching rearrangement of social activities, in order to realize a car-free society. For that matter, complaints about the insufficient accessibility are rather exaggerated when the chance of delay is the only criterion. From transport facilities other than the car considerably less quality is required.
Even if a restriction of the average travelling distances is taken as the basic assumption for physical planning, then still a number of different approaches would be possible. The decision about the approach would depend strongly on the view of how society is operating socially and economically. Reducing travelling distances could then be cast in a number of concepts, such as:
- the autarkical community with a mingling of living and working;
- the compact garden city;
- the integration of several urban functions into one entity or
- the "Technopolis" , in which it is no longer required to to leave the house at all, because of highly advanced technology.
The ideal bicycle city should have, among others, the following characteristics:
- mobility is measured in number of journeys, not kilometers;
- living should be rewarded, not travelling;
- living, working and recreation are mingled and
- the accessibility by public transport is excellent.
The 1990's main road network, developed on the basis of traffic models, has proved robust. "Political" additions of missing links, added by parliamentary amendment afterwards, have almost disappeared from the chart later. The addition was not based on traffic analysis.
It is noteworthy that long-term maintenance costs for main roads are of the same order as railways expenditure. However, the use of main roads, measured in numbers of passenger kilometers, is a factor six higher than the use of the railways. That requires further analysis. Is the use of the train really so expensive or does the incentive for efficiency not be given well?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022526620908264
Speed plays an important role in the road safety process. It explains the severity and often the occurrence of the accident. The reasons are:
- collision energy increases quadratically with speed;
- the braking distance becomes disproportionately longer;
- the driver's field of vision becomes narrower;
- the perceptibility of the car by other road users is reduced.
It is therefore understandable that measures aimed at traffic safety are often aimed at reducing speed. In addition, and not unimportantly, speed affects the quality of life in a street. Developments such as residential areas and 30 km/h zones have responded to this and the recently published Long-Term Traffic Safety Plan gives high priority to the enforcement of speed limits.
In this presentation I look back on the history of the separation between fast traffic and slow traffic. This principle was already part of CIAM's Charter and has been consistently implemented in all spatial plans in the Netherlands for many years. However, the Netherlands is currently unable to further improve safety with this strategy. Is this the dialectics of advantage or do we really need to intervene in the dominance of car traffic? Or should we look for improvements much more accurately, with in-depth research? I conclude with a perspective on the future.
Jan Ploeger's Het Verstandshuwelijk describes the emergence of informal chain mobility from the perspective of cyclists. Historical research in Dutch archives, newspapers and “gray” literature reveals that cyclists discovered the useful combination of bicycle and train early on and kept the railroad company on its toes when developing improvements. It shows how influential cyclist organizations were in the development of good bicycle parking and rental facilities at Dutch stations. Travelers, often tourists, were early to take their bikes on the train. Convenient, because then they also had a bike on arrival for the rest of their vacation. The first commuters also came to the station by bike but did not want to take their expensive bikes with them every day and organized their own safe storage. They enlisted their association ANWB to advocate guarded bicycle parking with the railroads. In 1914 the NS-Bewaarplaatsen Maatschappij was founded. All major railway stations in the Netherlands received guarded bicycle parking facilities within a few years. Architects thereby discovered the importance of the station as a transfer machine, with Amsterdam's Amstel Station as the finest example.
The cooperation between bicycle and train seemed natural. There were not so many alternatives. That changed in the Netherlands starting in 1960. The car became popular and the convenience of smooth door-to-door travel threatened train transportation. Theorists published insights about the catchment area back in the 1930s but presented passenger flows as a natural phenomenon: like water in the river. Economists believed that the market should solve obstacles to and from the station. An insight still described as Mobility as a service (MaaS). Chain mobility came into the picture of urban planners because of the positive effect of rail transportation combined with pedestrians and cyclists as feeders to the system. Scholars gave this the designation Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Planners working for NS in the 1960s discovered that cycling significantly increased the catchment area of a station, for the same travel time. The Dutch cyclists thereby benefited from national spatial policies that, since 1958, consistently focused on keeping cities compact and encouraged housing development near stations. The case of Houten, a suburb of Utrecht, shows how the NS converted the TOD-theory into the development of an ideal bicycle city, connected to good public transport.
In the 1970s, the Fietsersbond took over the role of the ANWB in convincing the NS for good bicycle facilities. Taking bikes along on the train was preserved and thanks to pressure from the Fietsersbond, the NS started its Stalling 21 project. That led to the Action Plan for Bicycle Parking at Stations as cooperation between many parties, with the agreement "First 24 hours of free guarded parking" at its core. Local authorities help pay for the covered storage to prevent bikes from being left unattended on station squares. Het Verstandshuwelijk van fiets en trein concludes with the innovation of the weakest link in the mobility chain: the last mile. The now widely used OV-fiets is a textbook example of successful innovation as an interaction between social and technical processes.
In this contribution we will focus on these questions. First of all, by considering the start of the mobility observations, then by trying to unravel the factors that send mobility and finally by looking at the future.
The search for the ideal city is constantly repeated in history. The line of approach differs from functional, military and economic reasons to reasons concerning quality of life. Up until 40 years ago travelling restricted decentralization in that the accessibility required a compact physical planning. It was the availability of the car that made the cities spread out. As a consequence in principle there was no gain of time by using a car. The "bicycle city" is a crisis scheme, developed in Amsterdam and Copenhagen in the 1930s. The oil crisis made the bicycle fashionable again and at present it is the environmental issue which puts the bicycle in the spotlight once more. The increase of mobility in the past decades resulted in a sharp fall in the transport performance of the bicycle between 1960 and 1975. The expanding city and increased commuting
have undermined the bicycle's competitive position. And yet, it is hardly necessary, when using the cycling mobility of the average 20-year-old, to accomplish a far-reaching rearrangement of social activities, in order to realize a car-free society. For that matter, complaints about the insufficient accessibility are rather exaggerated when the chance of delay is the only criterion. From transport facilities other than the car considerably less quality is required.
Even if a restriction of the average travelling distances is taken as the basic assumption for physical planning, then still a number of different approaches would be possible. The decision about the approach would depend strongly on the view of how society is operating socially and economically. Reducing travelling distances could then be cast in a number of concepts, such as:
- the autarkical community with a mingling of living and working;
- the compact garden city;
- the integration of several urban functions into one entity or
- the "Technopolis" , in which it is no longer required to to leave the house at all, because of highly advanced technology.
The ideal bicycle city should have, among others, the following characteristics:
- mobility is measured in number of journeys, not kilometers;
- living should be rewarded, not travelling;
- living, working and recreation are mingled and
- the accessibility by public transport is excellent.
The 1990's main road network, developed on the basis of traffic models, has proved robust. "Political" additions of missing links, added by parliamentary amendment afterwards, have almost disappeared from the chart later. The addition was not based on traffic analysis.
It is noteworthy that long-term maintenance costs for main roads are of the same order as railways expenditure. However, the use of main roads, measured in numbers of passenger kilometers, is a factor six higher than the use of the railways. That requires further analysis. Is the use of the train really so expensive or does the incentive for efficiency not be given well?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022526620908264