Good Cycling Facility of the Week: 12th June 2014

This week we are featuring a signalised T-junction on a main road in the Netherlands - the equivalent of a UK A-road.

A wide, smooth bi-directional cycle track runs alongside this road, separated by a grass verge.

The key detail here is that the track bypasses the signals completely, so while motor vehicles have to stop for turning traffic at the T-junction, people cycling can continue unimpeded, in both directions. The green cycle-specific signal at the far side of the junction is for people wanting to cross into the side road. 

Simple, obvious, and effective.

[Also of note is the fact that the Dutch do not employ the same excess of signals as the UK does. Each motor vehicle lane has just one signal, with no repeater, on a raised gantry, at the stop line. The Dutch do not feel the need for a more distant repeater signal that is apparently necessary in the UK.]