To create a safer environment for bicyclists and pedestrians, the usefulness of different types of kerbs as a separation between these two modes has been questioned by both researchers and practitioners. Right angled kerbs pose risks to cyclists due to their height but are assumed to separate them well from pedestrians. Sloped and levelled kerb types are more forgiving but allow road traffic users to move onto each other’s infrastructure, creating a potential risk of collision. We examined the effects of different types of kerbs on cyclists’ and pedestrians’ behaviour. This is operationalized as a road user moving onto another traffic user’s infrastructure (i.e. crossing the kerb). A total of 14,502 bicyclists and 3,578 pedestrians at 12 different locations in Amsterdam were observed. We also examined the motives for crossing the kerb, and some smaller studies were carried out on corners and intersections and in some other Dutch cities for making comparisons. The results show that cyclists moving on the sidewalk is a relatively rare event for all kerb types and no conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians were observed. We therefore consider it unlikely that the risks of the height difference weigh up against the advantages in terms of separating cyclists and pedestrians. Thus, in the ambition of separating bicyclists from pedestrians as well as designing a ‘forgiving’ kerb to accept that people make mistakes, both the sloped and levelled kerb types come out as best practice.@en

More than one third of all road deaths in the Netherlands and more than two thirds of seriously injured casualties are cyclists. In recent years these shares have increased, despite the fact that the implementation of Safe System principles has been leading in road safety policy and has been successful in reducing the total number of road deaths. However, the annual number of fatalities among cyclists failed to decline and the number of injuries among cyclists has been increasing, especially in single-bicycle crashes. This raises the question why until now Safe System implementation has failed to contribute to the reduction of the number of casualties among cyclists. This question is urgent because of the goal to reduce the number of road deaths and serious traffic injuries in the Netherlands to (virtually) ZERO by 2050. This ambition is in line with the objectives of the European Union. The causes of the unfavourable developments in road safety for cyclists in the Netherlands and which problems require a solution are examined. This raises two questions: can improved implementation of Safe System measures reverse the negative trend, and can this result in ZERO cycling casualties in the future. The discussion involves investigating three dimensions: exposure, crash risk, and injury risk. The opportunities that technological developments may offer in future decades are also considered. It is concluded that Safe System implementation will include opportunities to make cycling considerably safer in the Netherlands. However, we face too many uncertainties to allow for developing scenarios that show how close the Netherlands will be to ZERO cyclists casualties.@en

Sufficient cycle track width is important to prevent single-bicycle crashes and collisions between cyclists. The assumptions on which the minimum width is based in guidelines is founded on only a few studies. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between cycle track width and lateral position of cyclists. Method: We conducted an experiment to evaluate the lateral position of cyclists along cycle tracks with different widths (Study 1). Participants cycled on an instrumented bicycle with a LIDAR to measure their lateral position. Five conditions were defined: cycle track width of 100 cm, 150 cm and 200 cm without interaction, and cycle track width of 150 cm and 200 cm with an oncoming cyclist simulated by a parked bicycle. The cross-sectional Study 2 is based on the collected lateral position measurements at cycle tracks with varying width reported in Dutch studies since 2010. Results: The experimental Study 1 with 24 participants shows that an increase in cycle track width causes cyclists to ride further away from the verge and keep more distance from an oncoming cyclist. The cross-sectional Study 2 was based on lateral position measured at 33 real-life Dutch cycle tracks. Study 2 yielded similar results, indicating that doubling pavement width increases lateral position by some 50%. Study 2 shows that, compared with a solo cyclist without interaction, a right-hand cyclist of a duo and a cyclist meeting an oncoming cyclist ride around 30% closer to the verge. Conclusions: The wider the cycle track, the more distance cyclists maintain from the verge. Cyclists ride closer to the verge due to oncoming cyclists. Practical applications: Given a cyclists’ lateral position while meeting, common variations between cyclists’ steering behavior, and vehicle width and circumstances, a cycle track width of 250 cm is needed for safe meeting maneuvers.@en

High pre-World-War-2 modal shares of cycling in European countries sharply decreased during the post-war decades. In the 1990s, European governments introduced policies to increase bicycle use. However, a database or longitudinal study on the development of bicycle use in European countries is lacking. The goal of this paper is to examine to what degree the amount of cycling has increased over the past decades, also in the context of potentially competing modes. Distances travelled per capita according to National Travel Surveys have been collected and were aggregated to seven 4-year periods between 1990 and 2017. Multilevel regression analyses on distance travelled per capita by bicycle, on foot, by public transport, and by passenger car were conducted for all countries. Additionally, analyses were conducted for which the 14 countries with data on bicycle use were divided in three groups categorised according to distance cycled per capita at the beginning of the study period. Distance cycled per capita per year ranged from some 30 km to 900 km. The results of all four regression analyses suggested that distance cycled per capita remained fairly constant over the past decades. Germany is an exception with some 150 km per capita more, in relative terms a 50% increase. Geographical variation in development is evidenced by a substantial increase of distance cycled per inhabitant in the capital cities of the countries included in the study. The outcomes suggest distance travelled on foot and by public transport (bus, tram, and metro) also remained fairly constant while the distance travelled by car increased by about 10% during the study period. We did not find indications that cycling substitutes travel on foot, by public transport or by car.@en

Cycling contributes to public health because it requires physical effort [1] and offers economic and environmental advantages over motorized transport [2]. However, 41,000 cyclists die every year in traffic crashes, 3% of the total worldwide [3]. Most fatal bicycle crashes are collisions with motor vehicles. Severe injuries among cyclists, however, are mostly due to single bicycle crashes and their numbers are increasing [4, 5]. An international review showed that the share of hospitalised casualties due to single-bicycle crashes varied from 3% to 41 % of the total number of hospitalised casualties [ 6]. ... The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between cycle track width and lateral position. We conducted an experiment in which the cycle track width was manipulated to determine its effect on lateral position. The results have been compared with previous findings from literature. @en