Intersection design, the Dutch - cycle friendly - way

[Ep. 120] The Dutch build cycle paths that continue on their intersections. They must have wider streets, right? Wrong! This video shows how these so-called "Protected Intersections" are built, no extra space is needed.

[ummonk]

It also makes driving a lot more pleasant by making it clear where you need to look for cyclists.

[dougwedel]

Whatever you do, don't remove this video! I keep showing it around and many Toronto cyclists and city planners are starting to understand it and are promoting it. I heard the latest objection to them, that the blind would encounter a traffic island and assume they reached the other side of the road. Then I rewatched the video and noticed the little orange rectangles. You already thought of this and included the textured strips for the blind to be safe. Fantastic!

[Khono]

Ten years later and I still haven't seen anything approaching this kind of safety in North America.

[Aranimda]

I live in the Netherlands and this works great.
It just needs some shark teeth yield lines to clearly mark which traffic has to yield for who.

[jzerious]

This 10 year old video about dutch roads makes me feel like us in America live in the stone age

[uncleshark]

I'm a car-loving American and I love this. I share this with my anti-car friends as an easily implementable solution that works for everyone.

[timba]

Alright this video is now officially 10 years old, I assume these crossings have been implemented everywhere by now right?

[Braii]

Keep in mind that this is a basic design to give you an idea of how to make a junction safer for bicycles. Before any junction gets built they monitor it for the types of traffic that come through it. So if big rig trucks cross it on a regular basis the junction will be built in a way to accommodate them.

[arseniyonline]

We should forward this video to every council in the world

[hjartathepoet]

It starts with separate cycle lanes, encourages people to use more bikes, but also develops into the countries' psyche.  Just returned from Denmark where, because everyone owns and uses a bike, the bike is king.  Car users stop at junctions for cyclists to allow them to pass first.  Can be very confusing for the UK cyclist!

[kosinusify]

It's truly amazing how much of a difference just a little bit of color and a few more lines can make!

[jorgeriviera]

well i won't hold my breath for this to happen in the US. it'd be easier trying to immigrate to the Netherlands!

[CapitalTeeth]

As someone from the Netherlands, I am completely mindblown at how inferior roads are in foreign countries.
They gotta take lessons from us asap.

[StoryOfLIfe]

As a Dutch person, I thought this was normal and widely used haha.

[benleow]

How to convince my city hall that this is the way to go. Stop pitting mode of transport against each other and instead use infra to ease tension and improve safety...

[BicycleDutch]

Lights are irrelevant in that case, because a cyclist going straight always has priority over turning traffic. That is the basic rule in the Netherlands (and most European countries). The cyclists the green path through the intersection and goes before turning motor traffic. Mostly in a different green cycle.

[priestpilot]

I think that the Netherlands has the most organized roads compared to other countries I've been to. I love how there are signals for every direction, like I've never seen a red arrow before! I personally prefer the european placement of traffic signals, which is usually at the stop line itself. In North America we have them on the other side of the intersection. Too often though I see people stopping on the crosswalk and not at the stop line.

[timp]

as a dutch person i can say driving feels alot more pleaseant because its alot easier to know where too look. and as a cyclist or pedestrian it is even easier.

[mfaizsyahmi]

This should be a required watch for any traffic engineering and urban design classes.

[BicycleDutch]

@bbeirinckx that is why in the Netherlands each direction has its own green phase. Not only traffic from left or right, oncoming traffic usually has a different green phase too. So the flows do not interfere. The same goes for pedestrians and bicycles that have different green phases. This does not mean there have to be long waiting times. Combining directions very differently than usual in other countries makes that possible.