@cityinfinity
A sustainable mobility design consultancy | Posts by founder, Mark Philpotts @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social | Better streets and places | contact@cityinfinity.co.uk | cityinfinity.co.uk | linkedin.com/company/cityinfinity
I cycled a street that lies in two countries — German cycle paths on one side, Dutch on the other. A border once marked by barbed wire is now deliberately invisible. A new post, with two videos.
I know it’s only Tuesday and there’s a new World War on, but this is still the stupidest thing I’ve read all week
"The feedback from residents was overwhelming and they made it clear these proposals would not reduce congestion in the area which was a key issue for the community."
Photos of a bike-sharing station in Bilbao containing 10-15 bikes, including one special tricycle.
Photos of a bike-sharing station in Bilbao containing 10-15 bikes, including one special tricycle.
Photos of a bike-sharing station in Bilbao containing 10-15 bikes, including one special tricycle.
A small gesture with a big meaning: tricycles are now a standard offering from the Bizkaibizi bike share.
By adding three-wheeled cycles, Bizkaia is making a powerful statement: cycling is for everyone—older adults, those with balance limitations, and riders who feel more confident on three wheels.
Held up, too, as one of the very best examples of a child-friendly neighbourhood, including here by @timrgill.bsky.social: rethinkingchildhood.com/2018/09/24/s...
Mum and daughter cycling side by side on a protected cycle track on CS2
Saw at least three families on the school run on cycleway 2 this morning. This scheme, on a road that was previously a deathtrap for anyone cycling, was transformational. Time for protected cycle tracks on all main road
A narrow contemporary street with 3 and 4 storey dwellings, a home zone where drivers are guests and lush greenery everywhere. An older person cycles along in the middle-distance as they pass covered cycle parking to the left.
Some 2.8km south-west of the centre of Freiburg im Breisgaum in the south-west corner of Germany, the Vauban neighbourhood is a living example of a low-car suburb. People-focussed design, SuDS and a tram spur make for wonderful, low traffic streets.
#FridayFun
A cycling/walking tunnel under the railway station of Hilversum (NL) with access to an underground bicycle parking garage, seen from the saddle.
New Short
youtube.com/shorts/KlRla...
A buff block paved footway continues over a side street with the main road to the right and a footway to the right of that. The street it flanked by shops and the road is one-way heading away from us. The kerb to the main road carries on over the side road as well, but it is almost flush with the road surface. There is grey blister tactile paving both sides of the junction and two people are walking ahead.
High Street, Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. A continuous footway which has been in place for decades. The area has been filtered, the road is one-way and so turning movements are limited. There is good visual priority and tactile paving has been provided. Just lacks a ramp for drivers.
#FridayFun
Have you signed our petition yet? lcc.org.uk/theft
From yesterday's launch, there's more media coverage with our Senior Policy Officer speaking to @zagdaily.com: zagdaily.com/trends/londo... and our Head of Campaigns @psimonk.bsky.social talking to @itvnews.bsky.social: www.itv.com/news/london/...
One of the first comments to this video on YouTube: "I could watch this all day long! I know that they are just going about their business getting from point A to point B. But this just absolutely fascinates me."
There might be some actual peers could would find this a useful investment of just one day's worth of their attendance allowance ;)
Good for peers who want to play at traffic engineering.
For those interested in parking design, our very own @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social is running a day course for PTRC next week on this very subject. It's also planned for the end of September.
More here:
www.linkedin.com/posts/markph...
H/T to @adamtranter.bsky.social's #BikeIsBest newsletter which highlights @tonyonodi.bsky.social binary search tool for finding the point a bike was stolen in a section of video footage.
Also, a good use of AI at last!
onodi.co/bisect/?utm_...
A red two-way cycle track passes the end of a little side street with three story Dutch homes on both sides. The access to the side street from the main road is via a steep ramp which crosses the cycle track and buff coloured footway. There are soke bikes parked against a sign post to the right of the access.
Coenderstraat, Delft.
A simple looking junction, but the more you look, the more you see the Dutch Sustainable Safety design approach in action.
Everyone moves in their clear space on the main road, interactions are managed, and people have priority in the side street, Westerstraat.
#FridayFun
No, it's a new tool in the box where both roads are 20mph, but up to the local authorities to install where they see fit otherwise.
If you think the paint is a faff, wait until the tactile paving!
The sketch is probably about right, but always happy for other views, although the Welsh Government is surely putting out some guidance including for the tactiles, but as the minimum crossing width remains 2.4m, the tactiles will need to be this wide too.
Now, there are two "limits of the crossing" (the stripes) and it isn't clear if that relates to the stripes edge closest to the second give way line or the edge furthest.
It makes more sense to be the edge closest to the give way line because if not, that will prevent quite a few configurations.
They are 1.1m to 3m on conventional zebras, but the 1.1m minimum has been varied down to 300mm.
The 5m from the second broken give way line (dia.1003A) or stop line relates to the a distance of no more than the 5m from the limits of the crossing (the edges of the stripes)
Actually, on closer reading (yes, @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social's work feed!) the layout is probably more like this.
Strip width is not modified, so 2.4m to 10m as now.
It is the give way lines for the crossing (dia.1001.5) which have been modified in their distance from the stripes.
The definition of sustainable transport modes should not continue to include “ultra low emission vehicles”. Sustainability cannot be reduced to tailpipe emissions, as even electric cars have huge environmental and social consequences.
actionnetwork.org/letters/dema...
A street in Cambridge, England. Bollards in the foreground, and again in the distance, preventing motor access to a short section of a cycle route which before and after runs on streets open to traffic, but very quiet. Another walking/cycling route merges via a bridge crossing river on the right.
Riverside, Cambridge. Not on a boundary, but similarly a short section of cycleway between two sections of street open to traffic. NB also protecting junction between two active routes (bridge descending to the right).
A Dutch road which has a red surface. There is a side road to the left and just beyond, a couple of centre bollards on a white lozenge marking for a short cycle track before becoming a road once more, but still red. There are flats to the left, behind a footway and a canal to the right.
This modal filter on Cromvlietkade marks the border between Rijswijk and Den Haag. It's not a route for motors, but provides a main cycling route which subtlety changes from cycle street to cycle track and back to cycle street with no loss of momentum for people cycling.
#FridayFun
Better places simply cannot be delivered without LTNs. The are key to network planning and their use unlocks so much.
Apart from some notable exceptions, much of the UK simply has not critically reviewed its network function which means we are tinkering with a broken system.
Cycling in the Netherlands isn’t a novelty — it’s everyday transport.
I made a new post and video explaining key traffic signs and priority rules — for anyone planning to ride here.
Group of cyclists using a floating bus stop with a clear glazed shelter & a Brighton & Hove bus on the road in a bus lane being overtaken by a queue of cars
Children cutting a ribbon on a cycle track with bicycles either side & politicians behind (L-R Ian Davey, Cabinet Member for Transport BHCC; Norman Baker MP, Minister for Roads; Jason Kitcat, Leader of BHCC - also Ben Sherrat of Sustrans in Green tshirt), while a 25 bus pulls into the stop
We've had them for real in Brighton since *May* 2013 when 14 floating bus stops were installed along Lewes Rd. Opened by then Roads Minister Norman Baker without much fuss (also @iandaveysussex.bsky.social)... Been working fine for over a decade & AFAIK no reported conflicts with bus passengers
but nothing has been discussed around that as far as we know.
The beacons and zig-zags were there because it predated the current rules (which this trial helped inform) and since then only a few really busy sites have beacons.
There is an argument for some kind of upright sign because when there is a crowd of people cycling, it is hard to see a crossing ahead
The raised crossing and stripes are very useful for people with visual and mobility impairments, but the hump needs to be a gentle change in level otherwise it couses an issue for some folks with non-standard cycles.