Aalborg Universitet Bike Infrastructures Report Silva, Victor ... - VBN

3.2.2 The Hague
The design
Just as in Tilburg the demonstration route in The Hague
was intended to be one stretched route (through the urban
fabric parallel between two main arterials for motorised
traffic) connecting the south-west of the city (Waldeck)
and the north east part (Mariahoeve) via the city centre.
Figure 3.4: Extension of the bicycle route to the villages of Oisterwijk and Berkel-Enschot.
Main features of the project (Gemeente Tilburg 1975; Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat 1977):
• Segregated cycling facilities, mostly a two directional path at one side of the main carriageway;
• Redesigned narrow streets in the city centre with restricted access for cars, and related to that a number of changes in
the circulation in the inner-city, such as changes of direction in one way streets;
• Intersection redesign so as to give priority to cyclists on the bicycle route as much as possible;
• Much effort is put into showing the continuity of the bicycle route across the intersections by using red coloured road
surface for the bicycle route.
• ‘Humps and bumps’ in the road pavement were used as an experimental feature at intersections to influence the manoeuvring
of car drivers.
Figure 3.5: The Hague is located in the west of the Netherlands
and part of the metropolitan conurbation called
‘Randstad’.
The Hague is the residence city of the Netherlands government
(Amsterdam being the capital). Government
has been residing in The Hague since the 16th century.
The Hague is the third city in the Netherlands with about
500.000 inhabitants. As the The Hague territory is fully
utilised, the number of inhabitants is now smaller than
30 years ago, but the increase of population is absorbed
by neighbouring municipalities. The agglomeration Haaglanden,
consisting of The Hague and its neighbour municipalities
has over 1 million inhabitants. And again this
agglomeration is part of the larger Randstad, the metropolitan
area in the west of the Netherlands including also
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.
The Hague is situated at the North Sea and well connected
with the other parts of the country by highways and rail
connections. The Hague is also called the capital of international
justice, being the residence of the International
Court and International Criminal Court.
Figure 3.6: Bicycle route in The Hague
But the planned route through the city centre and the east
part met so much opposition that the city centre part was
only decided upon after the evaluation study, and the
east part of the route was cancelled altogether. So the
bicycle route that was subject of the evaluation study is
only connecting Waldeck, a neighbourhood in the South-
West part of The Hague in North East direction with the
city centre. The urban density in The Hague is somewhat
higher than in Tilburg. Most parts of the route were designed
as a one sided two directional cycle path, with priority
of the cycle route at most of the intersections.
Some parts are one way streets with cyclists mixing with
motorised traffic and a contra flow cycling path in the
other direction. Main feature in The Hague is the design
of intersections with right of way for cyclists on the demonstration
route. As in Tilburg the continuity of the route
was made visible by the use of (red) coloured pavement.
The experimental feature in The Hague was the design of
‘priority intersections’ that provided right of way to cyclists
on the demonstration bicycle route. The bicycle route is
aligned over a road hump so as to make sure that crossing
car drivers are slowing down when approaching the
bicycle route. (Dienst der Gemeentewerken ’s-Gravenhage,
1978).
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