How to implement cycling solutions in a post-communist street system (and mentality) Marcin Hyła, VeloForum, 16 Oct.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "How to implement cycling solutions in a post-communist street system (and mentality) Marcin Hyła, VeloForum, 16 Oct."

Joleen Alice Day
7 years ago
Views:

1 How to implement cycling solutions in a post-communist street system (and mentality) Marcin Hyła, VeloForum, 16 Oct th

2 What has communism to do with cycling? No free flow of ideas in society (and between societies) Specific urban planning (or rather non-planning) Little choice for consumer ; lifestyles - limited Suppressed demand for cars ( western lifestyle ), both cars and bicycles - scarce! Public transport, predominant under communism, reduced need for other mobility

3 Cycling in the West Urban (and urbane) Northern Europe (Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland), not the US Long tradition: in 1930's, up to 80% of all trips were made on bicycle in Netherlands Harmonious development of cities: many mistakes and dead ends but a constant process of learning and improving

4 Netherlands: high heel cycling

5 Congestion in Netherlands

6 Cycling up to 30-40% of all trips

7 Netherlands & Denmark: inspiration

8 Netherlands & Denmark: inspiration

9 Cycling in the East (at least in Poland) Rural Poor man's transport or sport (Peace Race) Urban cycling (commuting) was present in Polish cities before WWII but not on a large scale. Poland was predominantly rural City development frozen under communism: many cities suffer from bad land use patterns and inadequate transport corridors (e.g. too narrow, inadequate network hierarchization)

10 Cycling in rural Poland

11 Cycling as sport or recreation

12 Cycling as what?

13 Specific technical issues in Poland Car parking generally allowed on pavement Street cross-sections often leave no room for bicycle lanes Chaotic development in the streets (kiosks, shops, filling stations etc. make it difficult to provide segregated cycling facilities Heavy goods traffic often goes through city centres or streets important for intra-city traffic Obstacles: rivers, railways, industrial zones etc.

14 Cycle lane vs. pavement parking

15 No room for cycle filtering lane

16 Cycling infrastructure

17 Cycling infrastructure dilemmas (general) On-road or off-road facilities? How to manage junctions? One way or two way facilities? For whom the infrastructure: the experienced cyclists, the beginners, weekend cyclists or just the potential or future cyclists? Look at transition countries, not only top cycling countries (UK, France, Spain vs. Netherlands or Denmark)

18 CROW five requirements ( Coherence (100% of journey sources and destinations served) Directness (no detours, detour factor <1,3) Comfort (no stopping, braking, starting, minimizing effort, delay factor: <15 seconds/km) Safety (minimizing conflicts and colision points) Attractiveness (added value: aesthetics etc.) All have tangible parameters with treshold values

19 The Bible

20 Eastern European (or Polish) dilemmas Heavy winters: lots of snow, ice and dirt Very poor road quality (ruts, potholes etc.) Extremely bad road safety records: dangerous driving (high speeds) People tend to cycle on sidewalks (occasional cyclists, elderly, children) as they are perceived by them as safer than roadway

21 Heavy winter cycling

22 Studded winter tyres

23 Legal context Law is extremely important in the long run Will be discussed at the other presentation on cycling strategies Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and Vienna Convention on Road Signs (both 1968) and their position in the legal system must be researched! Poland has enormous problems with legal regulations (Highway Code and other), overregulation, very poor quality laws

24 Cycling in post-communist world ROWEROWA POLSKA 2008 Who has priority here?

25 Cycling in post-communist world ROWEROWA POLSKA 2008 Vienna Convention: cyclists!

26 How do they do it in the West? Cycle lanes, not cycle tracks Traffic calming The more cyclists, the safer they are Integrated approach, not isolated one Cycle parking infrastructure Bike and ride bikes and public transport

27 Hierarchy of action Traffic reduction (esp. Heavy Goods Vehicles) Traffic calming (30 kph zones, woonerven) Junction treatment (e.g. small roundabouts) Roadspace reallocation (cycle lanes, shared bus and cycle lanes) Segregated facilities the very last

28 Traffic reduction

29 Traffic calming

30 Small roundabout: no left turn!

31 Filtering cycle lane at junction

32 Filtering lane and ASL for cyclists

33 Advanced Stop Line for cyclists

34 Left turn zone

35 Left turn zone

36 West East comparison Road network Cycling infrastructure contraflow traffic calming All cycle friendly infrastructure Cycling as modal share Berlin 5242 km 820 km 15 % of road network length 200 km 3700 km, 70% of road network length 4520 km, 85% of road network length Kraków 1200 km 90 km 8,5 % of road network length ca. 3 km ca km, <10% of road network length km, 15% of road network length More than 10% ca. 1-2%

37 How do we do it in the East? Cycle tracks (segregated) along main roads (postulated by cycling groups) Cycle tracks where there's room, not real need (implemented by authorities) Lots of problems and misunderstanding on technical level Opposition to traffic calming (road engineers) Opposition to contraflow cycling

38 Do we need a cycle track here?

39 A facility

40 Segregation provides safety :-)

41 Cycle tracks (segregated) Very tricky at junctions Require meticulous planning and design Problems with pedestrians (bus stops, shops, kiosks, entrances) Obvious solution for major roads Problematic (or extremely problematic) in other, minor roads with many junctions

42 Cycle track: base course

43 Machinery at work

44 Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA)

45 Small roller

46 Good geometry: for all cyclists

47 Cycle track lower than pavement

48 Cycle lanes (on-road) Good when real speed isn't high and no Heavy Goods Vehicles are present Filtering lanes: may be very good at junctions (good visibility) Work well with Advanced Stop Lines for bikes Require special solutions at junctions in wider (2 lane or more) streets Left Turn Stops Very few examples in Poland: traffic engineers don't like them and laws are complicated

49 Contraflow cycling Safe: drivers and cyclists see each other! Safer than alternatives: often allow not to use road or junction where cycling is problematic! Promotes cycling as makes routes shorter Cheap and efficient Usually needs no infrastructure or car parking relocation Standard in the West, opposed in the East

50 Contraflow cycling

51 Segregation at curves

52 Contraflow lane is one - way!

53 Contraflow lane is one - way!

54 No surface markings are needed

55 Belgium: in all one-way streets!

56 Traffic calming Grass root demand (local communities, schools, not just cyclists) room for coalitions Synergies: road safety for all (not only cyclists) Lack of engineering skills (speed humps need careful planning and design) Small roundabouts (single shared lane): no left turns for cyclists!

57 Traffic calming: speed humps

58 Lessons learned No cycling facility may be... OK! Cyclists at the right side of the road may be just fine, if sufficient space for overtaking is provided and surface is good Avoid left turns. They may be extremely dangerous, especially with multi-lane roads Segregated facilities must be top quality, must shorten distance and time and must be well connected to the remaining road network

59 Two level junction

60 Cyclists go under

61 ri Cyclists, pedestrians and tramways

62 Cycling tunnel

63 A simple T-junction solution

64 Wisla river cycle track (Krakow)

65 More than 500 cyclist per hour

66 Cycle bridge

67 More than 250 m for cyclists

68 Cycling bridge downtown Krakow

Bicycle Safety Webinar December 1 st 2010

Bicycle Safety Webinar December 1 st 2010 Kay Teschke Kay Teschke is Professor in the Schools of Population and Public Health and of Environmental Health at the University of British Columbia. She is principal