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Category: | Cycleway: An example of good practice |
Tags: | gilbert, groningerstraat, road |
Date time: | 3.25pm, Saturday 19th February, 2011 |
Time line: | Earlier | Later |
Facing: | North |
Added by: | davidhembrow |
Copyright: | CC Attribution-Share Alike (by-sa) |
Download: | View full-size original |
Credit: | David Hembrow |
Groningerstraat in Assen. This is a street the same width as Gilbert Road in Cambridge. The layout is extremely good for cycling, and residents get to keep their on-road car parking:
hembrow.blogspot.com/search/label/groningerstraat
Update: There's a misconception that this photo shows danger due to "the door zone". Actually that's not a problem on this street or with this design and there are several reasons why:
* A buffer is designed into the parking space. That's the light brick colour which this car has unfortunately been parked partly on top.
* Parking here is for residents. These cars don't move frequently so door openings are relatively uncommon.
* It's the convention to cycle on the right in the Netherlands, meaning that cyclists generally ride as far as possible from the car. You'll note that three cyclists are visible in this photo and they are all riding on the right.
* The width of the cycle-path, just short of 2.5 m in this location, means that a car door can in any case not span a very large part of the cycle-path
* If the door is opened and a cyclist swerves, the kerbstones between cycle-path and pavement are at 45 degrees. You can safely ride over this without falling (photos and video demonstration: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2008/12/danger-of-parallel-kerbs.html )
* Cyclists who think there is a danger of being "doored" ahead of them can change direction or stop without having to worry about the danger of motor vehicles in their lane.
* The driver's seat in this car is on the left. Therefore the most often opened door is also on the left, away from the cycle-path (at least one car ahead is parked backwards, though).
* If, despite all above, a cyclist was "doored" here, they would fall on the cycle-path and not on the road in front of a motor vehicle. This reduces the likely effect of a "dooring".
Dooring is actually extremely rare in the Netherlands. Design like this is a reason why. If this cycle-path was instead a narrow cycle-lane on the left of the car, most of the points above would be invalid.
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