Our streets are too narrow for cycle paths

I've lost count of how often people have tried to convince me that their city's streets are too narrow to have cycling infrastructure. The three words "not enough space" are repeated as if they are a mantra.

It is often genuinely believed that Dutch towns were built with wider streets and that there is therefore more space here than in other countries. Of course, that's not true at all. If you look around an older city like Assen (over 750 years old) then you find many narrow streets just as you would with any older city in another country. Newer wider streets in the Netherlands are also similar in width to newer wider streets elsewhere. It's the modern day usage of the space which is different, not the width of the streets themselves.

Take a good look at the photo above which shows one of the streets in Assen in 2014. Quite clearly there's "not enough space" here now to accommodate motor vehicles. When people see streets like this then they often guess that there was never enough room and that therefore this street was always much as it is today.

However, that's not actually the case. Look back to 1957 and we find that this same street was completely different. There was an asphalt through road in this location, and it was quite a busy road which could accommodate large vehicles in both directions. While the gap between those buildings looks small, it is in fact just enough to accommodate this traffic so long as you don't mind that pedestrians must cross only at certain places and can walk safely only on one side of the street. Note that no separate space at all was allocated for safe cycling. Cyclists had to use the road along with trucks, buses and cars. There is of course no longer a bus route through this location.

1970s city centre street in Assen. No room for cycle-paths here either. Traffic lights were required to deal with the cars in this location. Cyclists were amongst the cars and pedestrians had little space.

I suspect that this is starting to sound like a familiar situation to some readers in other countries and it was certainly familiar to Dutch cyclists in the 1950s.

The same location in 2014. We don't need traffic lights any more because cars are no longer driven through here. Note how there is ample space for cyclists on a "road" for bikes separate from a wide pedestrian path, and that the pedestrian path has plenty of space on both sides for a textured surface for blind pedestrians.

An observer in the 1950s in the Netherlands might well have pointed out that this street had "not enough space" for a cycle-path at that time. i.e. exactly the same objection as people give about their streets now. And of course they'd be right if the streets were viewed as having to always manage the same combination of vehicles as was the case in 1950s Assen.

1960s. Pedestrians squeezed to the edge while a lone cyclist waits with drivers for a traffic light 

So where did the space for people, pedestrians and cyclists, come from ? It came from right underneath where motor vehicles used to be. A second revolution on Dutch streets was required to change things. A decision was made to effect real change. This was not limited to just a few streets, but spread across cities and even the entire nation. Traffic was redirected so that residential areas and the centres of cities could be reclaimed by people.

Now: Pedestrianized with good cycle access

It's worth reflecting on the fact that cycling was in decline in the Netherlands while streets were dominated by cars. It's not difficult to work out why. Transforming the streets reversed this decline. As you look at these photos, consider how convenient and how safe it was to cycle on the streets of Assen in the past vs. how convenient and safe it is today.

1960s: Main through routes for motor vehicles and cyclists alike

Now: Still accessible by motor vehicle but very much a downgraded route. No longer usable as a through route by car so therefore few people drive here. Still a busy through route by bicycle, which no longer requires traffic lights.

1940s: Major intersection, in this case busier than usual due to an event. Traffic stopped at a junction.

Now: A pleasant place to sit and have a drink. Bicycles flow freely here and it is no longer a bus route

1974: Assen city centre was a car park. The car park was often full.

Now: Assen city centre is a square with cycle parking and where events are held. There's no longer any need to have the streets leading to this area dominated by cars. Note that small children are free to cycle even in the city centre.

People often believe that Dutch cities somehow have more space than other countries. As you can see from these photos, it's simply not true. What happened in Assen and across the Netherlands was that planning on a large scale gave streets a defined purpose rather than all of them operating in a chaotic manner as through routes by car. Motor vehicles were not prioritized above all other transport but careful considerations were made of where they should go and where they should not. Busy roads still exist, but careful junction design removes conflict.

Streets where cyclists and pedestrians needed to go were transformed to exclude through motor traffic.

When ring roads were built, old main roads became pleasant routes for bicycles and crossings were nearly always grade separated.

When a new route was required to take cyclists to the centre of a city from a new suburb, the original direct route was turned over to cyclists and the driving route took a required detour to traffic lights.

Drivers are now kept away from the city centre by a special type of one-way system leaving what were once the busiest city centre streets to cyclists and pedestrians. A similar network of one-way streets is used in residential areas.

Shops cater for cyclists with parking by the door, while car parks are by necessity larger and more remote.

Residential streets were treated in a
similar way, even the narrowest now
serving as bidirectional through routes
for bicycles while being made useful
for access only by car.

Together with an extensive grid of high quality cycle paths, these changes have resulted in nearly 100% segregation of cyclists from drivers. Cycling routes are largely unravelled from driving routes, resulting in lower noise, less danger and cyclists having the most direct routes and fastest journeys possible. This is what makes cycling extremely attractive to the entire population.

Of course it's not just Assen but every Dutch city which has done this and they have all been successful. Nothing stops other countries from making similar changes. There is no better time for other countries to start a similar transformation than today.

See the result of the transformation for yourself. We visit these locations on our study tours.

Comparisons of British vs. Dutch streets

One of the most popular excuses for why cycling infrastructure on the Dutch model is not built in other countries is that of space. Many people honestly believe that their city, be it London, Los Angeles, Sydney, Cambridge or wherever, has streets which are narrower than usual and can't provide cyclists with the necessary space.

An anonymous reader recently sent me a group of "photos" taken from Google Maps Streetview which illustrate similar streets in the UK and in the Netherlands. The streets are so similar they could almost be before and after photos, and in fact if they were all from the Netherlands that is what they would be.

In each case, any cycling provision provided in the British example is narrow, while that provided on a similar street in the Netherlands provides a far better cycling experience.

The difference in subjective safety is obvious. And of course this is why Dutch people feel confident to cycle so much more than people of other countries.

I'm sometimes asked why I concentrate on what has been done in the Netherlands. The answer is simple: proven results.

In how many countries are more than a quarter of all journeys made by bike ? Just one: The Netherlands. In how many are more than a 20% made by bike ? Still just one. More than 15% ? Denmark joins the Netherlands. More than 10% ? Finland - with Sweden and Germany just scraping in. More than 5% ? Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.

What the Dutch have done is quite amazing. They've been wildly successful even by comparison with second place, and second place is taken by a country with similar, though less well funded, policies. There is no example of a successful alternative route to mass cycling.

Click through for the full set of ten comparisons, shown a bit larger than these two sets of photos. Or take a look at some of the other excuses that people sometimes make for why their country has a low cycling rate.

For another direct comparison of British vs. Dutch policies, take a look at what passes as a London Superhighway vs. the Dutch equivalent.

This post is tagged with "beforeandafter" because while they're not actually "before" and "after" photos, they could so easily be so, if only the will to make these changes existed in Britain.

No room for cycle paths

These three photos come from a city in Canada. The same one I featured previously. They show a new cycle facility to create a link for cyclists.

Cyclists have been squashed between the existing sidewalk and a fence. Things such as seats at a bus stop are right on the "cycle path".



At this point the unfortunate cyclist is put into just about the worst possible point at the entrance to a property.

Unfortunately there was "no room" for a wide cycle path alongside this four lane road.

Of course, if you were to measure the width of the road you would soon come to the conclusion that there was plenty of room if it was possible to re-allocate just some of the space given over to motorised traffic.

The junction here is at the end of this cycle path. After bunny jumping the seat, cyclists are left to work out what to do next.

It is unfortunately extremely common for many countries to produce infrastructure like this.

It doesn't work to increase cycling levels by a significant extent because it's very obviously second rate.

Cyclists need directness, safety and to have a pleasant journey. They don't need an obstacle course.

Stop making excuses !

I previously covered this "too narrow" claim with an example in Cambridge.

Assen is 750 years old

750 years ago, some time around 1258, a new location was needed for the Maria in Campis monastery. A village and then a town grew up around this location, which was named Assen.

200 years ago, in 1809, city rights were granted by Lodewijk Napoleon, brother of the more famous Boneparte, who was King of Holland at the time.

Why is this of interest in a cycling blog ? I have often heard British people excusing less than excellent accommodation for bicycles on the grounds that British cities are too old to have been designed for bicycles. I've even known Americans make similar excuses, somehow imagining that Dutch cities were all razed to the ground in the 1990s and rebuilt around cycle paths. They weren't. Dutch cities are every bit as old as British cities and generally much older than American cities, or indeed than the United States of America itself. Of course, some have been changed dramatically and others are amongst the newest cities in the world and have only existed since the latter half of the 20th century. However, either way, bicycles are part of the transport policy.

Assen is an example of an older city. The centre has existed since long before either bicycles or cars were invented and as the city continues to expand quickly, the planning style dates from every time between 750 years ago and "right now". The city centre was not designed around bicycles, nor around cars for that matter, but nevertheless it is now wonderful for cycling and also for walking. This could also be seen as a good example of how to accommodate cyclists well in a "pedestrianized" space.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, even the early 70s, motor vehicles were king. Streets in the centre of the city looked much as in the first photo, which was taken in the mid 1960s. Note the narrow pavements and lack of specific space for bicycles. The city had been given over to the motor vehicle.

Move along to 2007 and the same street looks like the second photo. This second view is of the city which was attractive enough that we decided to make it our home.

The street is only for use by motor vehicles at specific times of the day and then for access only. This is an example of the action that has been taken in Assen to transform it into a bicycle, and human, friendly space. It didn't happen by chance, but was deliberately engineered. As there has been some confusion about this, please note that this is (thankfully) not shared space. It's closed to motor vehicles except for access at particular times of the day. A second revolution on the streets made this possible.

If you live somewhere which is less pleasant to cycle around and would like to see it transformed as this city has been, come on one of our study tours, or send your elected representatives.

Another blog post shows what it is like to cycle to this city centre and another is about the type of policy which brought this about.

These, and several more comparative photos, came from the book "Assen Verandert", which I reviewed a while back. The picture at the top is from an advert in the local paper giving details of the Burgemeester's new year presentation on the 5th of January.

But our streets are narrow...

I've had a few campaigners from the UK say to me that Britain's streets must be narrower than those in the Netherlands and that this is why there "isn't room" for better provision in the UK.

It's simply not true. The Netherlands has a history just as long as the UK's, and has roads in the centre which are just as old and just as narrow. A little while ago I wrote a review of a book about Assen showing how the city has changed over the years. The book, "Assen Verandert", includes photos showing streets that were clogged with motor vehicles in the 1960s and 70s, but which are now a pleasure to cycle in. The whole of the old centre has been transformed for the better in this way. You can get a glimpse of this by reading the review.

Of course, it's not only about older streets in city centres. Room is also found here alongside rural roads, and of course there is absolutely no excuse in new developments. So, why are new estates still dominated by cars in the UK while here we get first class cycling provision ?

The photo shows two of the Study Tour participants from May measuring the thickness of the (then) partially constructed surface of the new bike path on Groningerstraat. This road now has a 2.5 m wide unidirectional cycle path each side, widening in a few parts up to four metres (the older cycle path was a bit narrower).

The interesting thing about Groningerstraat is that when the width was measured, it turned out to be about the same width overall as Gilbert Road in Cambridge, a road I used to ride along regularly when I lived there. The two roads have many similarities: both have houses dating from before the Second World War, both have trees down either side, both have a secondary school and the traffic levels are similar. Another pair of photos to compare: Groningerstraat vs. Gilbert Road.

Groningerstraat is very much better for cycling along than Gilbert Road. Let's stop giving planners an excuse. There may not always be room for cars, but there is always room for bikes.

Update November 2009: I have made a video showing the entire length of this road and how well it works. Also I have found how much it cost to do this work. Probably less than you think. It's all at this blog post.

Dutch towns and villages also include many very narrow streets like this. In such cases,  motor traffic is diverted elsewhere