Scene from a Dutch suburb built in the 1980s: The dreaded Bendy Bus. Many cyclists really dislike these, and they have been blamed for an increase of injuries in London. Quite apart from the real danger, it is quite obvious that the articulated nature of them leads to a reduction in subjective safety for cyclists, and we already know how important that is.

Over here, buses rarely get close to cyclists as we're on the cycle path (red) while the buses are on the roads, with the speed bumps to try to keep them and the other motor vehicles under control.

Note also the way the road rises up a little at the position of the crossing for pedestrians (and cyclists just off the right of the photo). Just enough to give drivers a hint that they should slow down at this location, but without causing cyclists (on the cycle path) any problem at all.

Getting "knocked down by a bus" is not all that uncommon where buses are mixed in with cyclists. Large vehicles don't ever really mix very happily with bicycles, and that's one reason why I have never thought much of shared bicycle / bus lanes. The only time I've ever had to ride in a bus lane in the Netherlands, it had been converted into a bike lane because of road works.

It was -7 C ( 19 F ) this morning, warming up to a maximum of -4 C ( 24 F ) by this evening when it started going back down again ( it's -8 C or 17 F as I type this). It's now cold enough that the lakes are frozen over such that they can be walked and skated on.

I took this video on a ride right through Peelo, a 1970s / 1980s residential area of Assen, today. It's the same area as where I rode through the woonerven a few days back. The same area as where hopscotch is permanently built into the road.

Direct routes for cyclists, in red, don't exist by car

In the video we ride from point A to point B on the map, a distance of about 1.5 km or 1 mile through this suburb. Our route is along the cycle path shown by the wider red line which provides the main West-East route for cyclists, and of course also links with other routes to other destinations at either end.

The narrower red lines show some of the other larger cycle paths in the area which make up part of the grid of routes required.
Shops, schools and other services are all conveniently placed right on the main cycle path through the area. This cycle path provides the most direct route from West to East. It is not possible to make such a convenient journey by car because the roads take less direct routes with a lot of bends. It is to the advantage of cyclists that driving routes are unravelled from cycling routes.

The photo shows how a road ends in a cycle path in front of these houses (the sign reads "fietspad" - Dutch for "cycle path"). It is a straight line along this path to one of the schools shown in the video. To drive there would require a considerable detour along many small roads. It is virtually always possible to make shorter journeys by bike than by car in this area, and this is why most journeys in the Netherlands take less time by bike than by car.

For another view of this area, showing how convenient it is to get from homes onto this cycle path, see the video on a previous post.

This area of Assen, as well as newer and older residential areas, features on our study tours for planners, campaigners and others interested in the role that infrastructure takes in encouraging cycling.

Quite a few people responded to a previous post showing a hopscotch game chalked onto the street outside our home. However, children playing on the street doesn't only happen completely informally here.

This example is a hopscotch game which is built into a road surface, using coloured bricks. It is one of several in the same area.

This area, Peelo in Assen, extensively uses the idea of the woonerf or "home zone". The speed limit on these streets is walking pace, and cyclists and pedestrians have priority over motor vehicles. The woonerven are connected together by roads which have a speed limit of 30 km/h (18 mph) as well as by cycle paths which give the most direct and convenient routes.

This idea was very common in the Netherlands in the late 1970s through to the 1980s when this area of the city were built. Similar thinking can be seen in developments from the early 1970s and in later developments.

A video showing the streets around this area is here:

Explanatory captions on this video are visible only if you view it on a computer and not on a mobile device.
While this estate is now nearly 30 years old, many of the features of it are still not apparent in areas of housing being built in other countries. This area of Assen, as well as newer and older residential areas, features on the Study Tour.