Summary
In many towns interest has grown over the past years for the attractiveness of town centres, giving rise to reconsidering the accessibility of pedestrian areas to cyclists This lead to political repercussions in numerous towns, eventually resulting in a wide range of solutions. There are, as a result, no clear policy guidelines for the issue of cyclists in pedestrian areas, making it completely or almost impossible to substantiate political choices with data. Fietsberaad instructed BRO to hit the streets and see if any lessons could be learned from actual practices. The crucial question was: when can cyclists no longer smoothly mix with pedestrians?
Conclusions:
• At pedestrian densities up to 100 pedestrians per hour per metre of layout width a complete mix is possible.
• At pedestrian densities exceeding 100 pedestrians per hour per metre of layout width, separation of pedestrians and cyclists is advisable. Up to a density of 160 pedestrians per hour per metre of layout width application of a bicycle lane within an unsegmented layout will suffice. At higher densities (up to some 200 pedestrians per hour per metre of layout width) a segmented layout will be necessary.
• When densities exceed 200 pedestrians per hour per metre of layout width, a combination of cyclists and pedestrians is no longer possible. This immediately raises the question: how to prevent cyclists from travelling in pedestrian areas?