Presentation for the UNECE Group of Experts on Cycling Infrastructure Module - 24 March 2023
UNECE GROUP of Experts on Cycling Infrastructure
24 March 2023
Joris Van Damme
EU CHIPS project (2016-2019)
Projectleader cycle highways
Province of Flemish-Brabant
An international perspective from the CHIPS EU-project
CYCLE HIGHWAYS IN BELGUM AND EUROPE
5 regions
1 academic partner
1 UK partner
1 Bike industry cluster
1 Federation (ECF)
+ Associated partners:
Region Copenhagen,…
Cycle Highway
Academy
network
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO TRY TO
SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE?
COMING …
THE BENEFITS OF ECONOMIES OF SCALE
LOCAL GLOBAL
REGIONAL
AWARENESS
INTEGRATION
LEARNABILITY
economies of scale
share one network-brand
one type of wayfinding
one website www.fietssnelwegen.be
with navigation tool
Unknown Well-known
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
More uniform BUZZ
Better integration in diverse touchpoints…
But if you compare with popular mobilty products
?
?
Unknown Well-known
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
So maybe we need
to become a bigger family?
Unknown Well-known
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
Or a clan?
Regionale cykelstråk,
Stomcykelstråk,
Supercykelstråk,
Sweden
Snelfietsroute
s, Netherlands
Réseau Cyclable à Haut
Niveau de Service"
(RCHNS), Réseau Express
Vélo (REV),
France
Sykkelekspressveg
er,
Ekspresssykkelveie
r, Norway
Baana,
Finland
Cycle
Superhighway
s, England
Supercykelstier,
Velostrada,
Denmark
Ciclovia,
Spain
Fietssnelwegen,
Cyclostrades,
Corridors
cyclables
Belgium
Radschnellweg,
Germany
And probably many more…
MORE AND MORE
REGIONS ARE
ENTERING THE CYCLE
HIGHWAY ERA
THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIES OF SCALE
LOCAL
GLOBAL
REGIONAL
One brand
coding system…
Local name
C-codes?
NETWORK IDENTITY
ROUTE IDENTITY
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
It’s not just a very specific type of infrastructure with
specific charateristics: 4 meter wide, forbidden for cars…
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
Of course, we love this! But…
4 meters, no cars
… but sometimes it’s also
a good working
and well designed cycle street
Or traffic calming measures.
Or recycling and reusing calm roads along a
canal…
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
It’s rather a “family” of infrastructures…
But it’s less complex than trying to find the common feature of games.
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
It’s a kind of “team” of infrastructures playing together…
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
… to provide a “transport solution”
Like a train, it solves certain problems of users and serves certain needs. And
it’s even more sustainable, cheaper, healthier… than a train! + A to B solution!
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
Before I discuss the CHIPS definition,
let me explain how we started with this interesting
“transport solution”…
0 km 371 km
Bad Good
Unknown Well-known
Ad hoc project Institution
KM COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
QUALITY OF COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
ORGANIZATION ROOTING
GENESIS
2012 2045
2023
50 km
2016
A BRIEF HISTORY
HOW DO WE DEFINE A CYCLE HIGHWAY?
We like to follow the CHIPS definition we came up after a
lot of discussions with partners from different regions
www.cyclehighways.eu
“A cycle highway is a mobility
product that provides a high-quality
functional cycling connection. As
backbone of a cycle network, it
connects cities and or suburbs,
residential areas and major (work)
places and it satisfies its (potential)
users.”
- https://cyclehighways.eu/
The CHIPS-definition:
You can name it, talk about it, love or hate it, dream of it.... When it’s
implemented, you can use it and recognise it in the street!
A toolbox around
branding & wayfinding
Cycle Highway Academy Copenhagen
Example of CHIPS recommendations around branding:
https://cyclehighways.eu/tools/readability-toolbox/browse-the-readability-toolbox/detail/toolbox/chips-recommended-identity-principles.htm
https://cyclehighways.eu/tools/readability-toolbox/browse-the-readability-toolbox/detail/toolbox/chips-recommended-code-logo-strategy-flanders-brussels-
and-copenhagen.htmll
0 km 371 km
Bad Good
Unknown Well-known
Ad hoc project Institution
KM COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
QUALITY OF COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
ORGANIZATION ROOTING
GENESIS
2012 2045
2021
50 km
2016
COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAYS
0 km 371 km
KM COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
50 km
111 km not cyclable
210 km cyclable
without wayfinding
50 km COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
…
“A cycle highway is a mobility product
that provides a high-quality
functional cycling connection. As
backbone of a cycle network, it
connects cities and or suburbs,
residential areas and major (work)
places and it satisfies its (potential)
users.”
- https://cyclehighways.eu/
WORK IN PROGRESS, SOMETHING THAT GROWS
Circulation plan…
Cycle street Priority
New study
Future plan
“A cycle highway is a mobility product
that provides a high-quality
functional cycling connection. As
backbone of a cycle network, it
connects cities and or suburbs,
residential areas and major (work)
places and it satisfies its (potential)
users.”
- https://cyclehighways.eu/
QUALITY IS RELATED TO THE USERS
Design goals
for the infrastructure are adapted to
the needs of users from 8 to 88 years
old.
CYCLE HIGHWAYS FOR PEOPLE
> A lot of users, cargobikes in both
directions? Width of 3 meter is not
enough etc.!
> Important route for children who
cycle to school? extra slower lanes?
> To much or too fast car traffic in a
cycle street?
Circulation plan, ANPR filters,
enforcement measures…
“A cycle highway is a mobility product
that provides a high-quality
functional cycling connection. As
backbone of a cycle network, it
connects cities and or suburbs,
residential areas and major (work)
places and it satisfies its (potential)
users.”
- https://cyclehighways.eu/
QUALITY IS RELATED TO THE USERS
Traffic per hour from
Monday to Friday
data from 2022
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Gemiddeld aantal per uur op weekdagen 2022
richting Eppegem richting Vilvoorde
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Gemiddeld aantal per uur op weekdagen 2022
richting Eppegem richting Vilvoorde
Telpunt Eppegem
Direction to Brussels in
the morning
Direction away from
Brussels in the evening
In the first place designed for
commuters. It’s rather for
functional cycling.
But this does not mean it should
not be attractive, on the
contrary!
See also other criteria
CYCLE HIGHWAYS FOR PEOPLE
0 km 371 km
Bad Good
Unknown Well-known
Ad hoc project Institution
KM COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
QUALITY OF COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
PRODUCT ACCEPTANCE
ORGANIZATION ROOTING
GENESIS
2012 2045
2021
50 km
2016
QUALITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE
Width
Quality of cycling street
Safe crossings
Lighting
Quality of wayfinding Lighting
Bad Good
QUALITY OF COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
bidirectional
paths of at least
3 meters
Bad Good
QUALITY OF COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
There are interesting design manuals! See f.i. Flanders:
https://wegenenverkeer.be/sites/default/files/uploads/documenten/Vademecum%20Fietsvoorzieningen.pdf
A lot of information on the CHIPS website: vision, criteria to
plan and design cycle highways, avoiding mistakes…
interuptions
still a lot of intersections
without priority, with hard stops…
Bad Good
QUALITY OF COHERENT CYCLE HIGHWAY
Width 4 meters
Attractiveness: importance of travel pleasure!
“A cycle highway is a mobility product
that provides a high-quality functional
cycling connection. As backbone of a
cycle network, it connects cities and
or suburbs, residential areas and
major (work) places and it satisfies its
(potential) users.”
- https://cyclehighways.eu/
They can also be used for shorter trips
Cycle Highways are a backbone!
Sometimes in combination with a train,…
I have 20 minutes to introduce the topic of cycle highways in Belgium. I will not only focus on Belgium, but I will also say somthing about the EU project chips and introduce a more European perspective.
Let me start with presenting my self. My name is Joris Van Damme, I work for the province of Flemish-Brabant as a mobility planner and as project-leader for cycle highways. I was also closely involved in the CHIPS project around cycle highways. The province of Flemish-Brabant was project leader.
The EU CHIPS project was focused around cycle highways. Here we see a short overview of the partners. 5 regions were involved: Flemish Brabant, Gelderland, FrankfurtRheinMain, Rhein-Neckar, Ruhr Area
1 academic partners: BUAS. 1 UK partner: Sustrans (cycling association)1 Bike cluster (Flanders Bike Valley) 1 European Federation: European Cyclist Federation. ECF for instance helped us to organise different cycle highway academies in several velocities world conferences. F.i. in Nijmegen, Dublin.Apart from these partners, we had also sub-partners and associated partners (local authorities like the city of Leuven, other regions, federations,…) helping us to implement the pilot projects and helping with dissemination.
Weg laten
How did it start: developing the cycle highway network is an important policy priority for Flemish Brabant. We were already working with other Flemish provinces creating a visual identitiy , and we had already been exchanging with Dutch partners. But the aim was to influence things on a European level. We started using our contacts in other regions to build a consortium to cover (most of) NWE and to tick all the boxes: academic partner, corporate partner, dissemination partner, . (we tried to include France, but that did not work at the time) . We were also in contact with Copenhagen, but they are outside the NWE programme area and finally, we only included them as associated partner.
Before I share some finding from the CHIPS project, let me start with the cycle highways in Belgium. We entered the cycle highway era since around 2012. So we have been working on it for 10 years now and gathered a lot of knowledge and experience. And to be honest, I’m proud about what we have achieved in Belgium. For since this year the sourhtern French speaking part is also entering the cycle highway era and will use the same brand. And this is amazing news.
It’s amazing, because our brothers and sisters from the french speaking part of Belgium will also use the same brand. So now I’m very proud to state that this is the way we talk, dream, speak etc. about cycle highways in Belgium. We use the same brand, the same colours… Despite the fact that we speak different languages, we found a common cycle highway language.
Actually, the movement started in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. We call our cyclehighways fietssnelweg. Meaning cycle highway. We started around 2012 and in 2016 we launched the name and brand. All the information around our network is gatheredn on one website.
In Brussels and the southern part, cycle highways are called cyclostrade. I must confess I love this term because of the C! The c of cycling, cyclist, route cyclable. It refers to the ancient greek roots kyklos. The C works in different languages. Even in Danish!
The C is also used for the cycle highways in danmark. I see a lot of benifits in trying to speak the same language, also on an international scale. So mabye the C is a good option for the future.
Why is it important? There are huge ecomies of scale. In belgium, we for instance have 1 central website with all the information. We could also have ended op with 10 websites or more, 10 different logo’s, 10 different colours etc. And it could be worse…
I want to stress the benefits of economies of scale. It improves the awareness and integration of the mobility product. Integrations in daily talks, in digital tool…
There is a uniform buzz, a common way to work together and nog unimportant: almost free publicity, much more exposure of the brand etc.
If I have to assess the product acceptence, I give ourselves a good score. I f.i. love the facebook communities around cycle highways. This illustrates how this mobility product lives. How people are using it. How they discuss it etc.
But to be honest. If I’m more critical and if I compare with other mobility products like the motorways… Than there is still a lot of work to do!
If you are wondering what all the blue paint is doing on the map
It is…
Before I discuss the definition, let me zoom on our cycle highway network around Brussels. In this way I also want to introduce an interesting tool we devloped in the CHIPS project.
L
Quite easy to understand, quite hard to implement – and many ways to do it
We made an important distinction between two aspects of readability. The first aspect is infrastructural readability. This aspect has to do with elements that make the infrastructure more uniform, continuous and hence readable. For instance things like uniform infrastructure, type of asphalt,… but it can also be landscape elements like a row of trees or a cycle path along river or a railroad.
The second aspect of readability is what we have called the awareness aspect of readability. Let me illustrate this point with an example
Take for instance Bert. How can Bert know that he is entering a cycle highway? How can he become aware that the cycling infrastruture he wil use in a minute is a specific mobility product? How can we trigger him to see the infrastructure not merely as infrastructure?
We can to this in this way. By bringing Bert in touch with a brand or identity layer. In this concrete case we make Bert aware that he will be using the F3 cycle highway. And if he is curious, he will discover on the website that it’s the cyclehighway between Leuven and Brussels. And mabye he will talk to his friends about this F3 mobility product. The ”code-logo” enables Bert to understand the mobility product and talk about it, # it, look for more information and so on.
This picture is also an example of the CHIPS cycle highway pilot our region. It is on this first generation cycle highway between Leuven and Brussels that we first tested our new wayfinding tools. With this brand (F3 number logo), the cycle highway becomes a mobility product that can easily be communicated, promoted and used by new users. Let me get back to the theory.
If you combine both aspects of readability, you get an interesting matrix. This matrix shows the interaction between the two aspects of readability. In the top right corner you have the ideal situation: uniform cycle highway infrastructure with wayfinding.
Most first generation cyclehighways however, like the F3 CHIPS pilot, are more like the bottom left situation. You can improve them by adding a brand and wayfinding so that they can become a mobility product that you can use (bottom right).
Or course, you can only do that if there already some qualitative infrastructure. You need al least a minimum of good infrastructure. And of course, you could object that you should wait till every piece is ready. We believe however that you don’t need to wait for the maximum:
Not only because you want sustainable solution in the short time.
But also because creating a mobility product can be an efficient strategy to arrive faster in the top right corner. By creating and promoting the mobility product, you get more users and more reasons and pressure to improve it. The branding improves the support base to invest in better cycle highways.
We also worked on a toolbox around branding and improving wayfinding. As you can see here, most first generation cycle highways are not all the way self-explaining. They are often a mixture of infrastructure. They don’t have self-explaining infrastructure like motorways and need some extra wayfinding measures to make them more readable. In CHIPS we worked around tools that help you to improve this readability and glue the different pieces together so that you can promote your cycle highway as a mobility product. Let me elaborate it a bit in the next slides.
This is an example of the wayfinding CHIPS pilot in the Netherlands. This is Joost De Kruif presenting an interesting innovation. But lisette will tell more about it in the next session.
Here you see more pictures of the measures we took. The F3 cycle highway was the central CHIPS pilot in our region. And inspired by this pilot and our approach, another similar CHIPS pilot was implemented in the Netherlands. And we learned a lot by doing this pilot togheter with the Dutch partners.
Quite easy to understand, quite hard to implement – and many ways to do it
Quite easy to understand, quite hard to implement – and many ways to do it
Quite easy to understand, quite hard to implement – and many ways to do it
If we zoom out a bit and look at the different speed regimes, I see around 8 strategies to improve the bicycle flow on cycle highways.
For faster speed regimes, the option I have showed is not feasable. There you need bridges or tunnels. Or traffic lights with detection of cyclists. Another option can sometimes be an Island so that cyclist can cross in two steps or if you have enough space a roundabout.
The solution I showed is a solution that can be applied in lower speed regimes.
Quite easy to understand, quite hard to implement – and many ways to do it
Cycle highways provide people a lot of opportunities to integrate more exercise and sports in their daily lives. So even when your cycle trip takes more time than sitting in your car, you in a way gain time. You f.i. gain time after you busy day in the evening. Since you don’t need to spend extra time in an expensive fitness room.