Good Cycling Facility of the Week: 8th October 2015

This week's Good Facility is a roundabout in Assen. The photograph is of the crossing points for cycling and walking on one arm of this roundabout.

While most roundabouts in urban areas in the Netherlands give priority to people cycling, Assen is different. All the roundabouts in Assen, both in urban areas and in rural areas - give priority to motor traffic, as in this example.

This kind of roundabout design is safer; people who are cycling are in better position to judge when it is safe for them to cross, rather than relying on drivers giving them priority, or assuming that drivers will give them priority. 

There is a little more inconvenience with this design; you may have to wait for motor traffic to pass, before crossing, which would not be the case with a 'priority' design. However, this inconvience is mitigated by a number of elements of the design -

• the cycling infrastructure around the roundabout is bi-directional, meaning people cycling can choose direct routes without going around the whole roundabout;
• visibility around the roundabout is good, and the crossing points are perpendicular, meaning it is easy for people cycling to adapt their speed so as to arrive at gaps in motor traffic at the right time;
• the tight geometry of the roundabout makes it plain to people cycling whether motor traffic is exiting, or remaining on, the roundabout;
• the road is crossed in two stages, with a refuge island in the middle, and only one lane is crossed at a time - far easier than attempting to cross multiple lanes.

More about this design, by David Hembrow.