Promotion of more and safer bicycle traffic produces healthier road users and helps to create better towns. Collection of Cycle Concepts presents some ideas on how to increase the use of bicycles and how to prevent bicycle accidents.

The growth in car traffic is creating environmental problems and congestion. Compared to other countries in Europe traffic problems in Denmark are still modest. An important explanation for this is the development in the course of the last century of a robust bicycle culture. Today, one trip out of five in Denmark is by bicycle.

The future role of the bicycle must also be strong in order to create a sustainable society. It is important to develop and infrastructure that permits the optimal exploitation of the bicycle's qualities and possibilities.

A larger share of the short trips in towns can take place by bicycle. The car is often indispensable on longer trips. The bicycle can not be alone. Intermodality is important. The right balance of good roads and paths for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists can create better towns without losing the interaction between modes of transport.

The bicycle can more often be used as feeder traffic for coach, bus, train and plane on longer trips. This calls for safe an functional access roads and terminals with good possibilities for interchanges.

Not only road administrations, but also companies, institutions, schools associations ets, must contribute to changing our attitudes to transport and making it more acceptable to cycle. The individual advantages are big. Half an hour's cycling daily increases our mean life expectancy by 1-2 years and gives better quality of life, both physically and mentally.

There are many measures that can be taken to improve cyclist safety. In spite of this, the accident risk for Danish cyclists has not changed over the past 25 years. It is necessary to approach the problem more systematically and introduce proposed solutions and places and among target groups where they will have the greatest impact.

The main challenge is promoting more and safer bicycle traffic is the need to implement a wide range of measures simultaneously. I therefore invite the reader to consider the many ideas contained in Collection of Cycle Concepts-and be inspired of those ideas, which apply to local conditions.

This is probably the best bicycle planning guide I've run into so far. Throroughly recommended for anyone interested in these issues, and for anyone already involved in bicycle planning or advocacy.

Some of the good stuff: route sweeping, every 2-8 weeks, plus extra autumn service to deal with leaves and a special service for weekends to deal with broken glass near nightlife zones (p. 123); “cycle crossings,” where pavement markings are extended through an intersection to reduce conflicts with turning motor vehicles (p. 89); advanced stop lines; cute advertisements (p. 37); signage (pp. 102-105); effect of distance on mode choice (p. 46); discussion of the need for small shops (p. 46); graph showing how age affects cycling speed and distance (p. 12); wheel ramp on stairs (p. 95); bike parking maps (p. 108), with symbols for covered/uncovered and number of spaces.

Keywords: bicycle planning, bike box, pavement colouring, bicycle segregation, bicycle parking, bicycle collisions, traffic calming

The ADONIS project was commissioned by the European Commission to a Consortium comprising 7 partners as part of the Fourth Framework Programme. Original title of the project is: Analysis and Development Of New Insight into Substitution of short car trips by cycling and walking (ADONIS).

The ADONIS project was partly funded by the EU - DG VII Transport RTD Programme, Urban Sector and was co-financed by Danish Transport Council, Danish Ministry of Transport, Municipality of Barcelona, Catalan Institute of Road safety, SAINCO TRAFICO S.A., Swedish Transport & Communications Research Board and Belgian Institute for Traffic Safety.

Interesting ideas: C10 (New types of designs for bus stops) describes some interesting ways of designing bus stops to reduce conflicts with cyclists. In one of the options, the bicycle lane is against the curb, but the bus does not pull into the curb to let passengers off. Instead, it stops in its lane, and passengers walk across the bicycle lane. To help them, zebra crossings are marked across the bicycle lane at the bus doors. I think this design is only needed because buses in Denmark are not allowed to pull up to the curb when there is a bicycle lane. C17a-b (Two-way bicycle traffic in one-way streets in Belgium and the Netherlands) gives some interesting background on the effectiveness of this desirable tactic in those countries, and includes some useful signs used there. C18 (two-way traffic on cycle tracks) makes the interesting point that two-way tracks can be good solutions when there are many T juntions on one side of the street, but few on the other (e.g., next to rail tracks or water).

The crossings section is excellent: all of C19-C32 are worth reading. These ideas are first-rate, and few of them have been adopted in North America, from what I've seen. These are some of the biggest issues that I have with current design on this continent. I liked their use of the term “cycle crossing” where the bike lane/path is marked through an intersection.

The parking section (C33-C38) isn't too revolutionary. There are a few interesting details of free public bicycle programmes, and company bicycle programmes in C40-C42. The rest of the policy section (C39-C44) was unexciting, and likewise for the education section (C45-C52).

The organisation section had some interesting ideas. C53 discusses bicycles on public transport (mainly commuter rail routes) in Copenhagen. C56 (“BikeBusters”) describes a programme where committed car drivers were given a free bike, free bus tickets for a year, and asked to fill in trip diaries and track their weight and cholesterol. Others describe bike-to-school programmes, bicycle courier companies, and priority snow cleaning.

Keywords: bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, pavement colouring, pavement marking, streets

Somewhat interesting, mostly due to its rarity: there are very few North American studies of pavement colouring. It's a rural context, and hence not very applicable in the situations I examine, where a bike lane might be coloured adjacent to a parking lane. The most curious aspect of the paper is the author's choice to consider “motor vehicle encroaches neighboring vehicle lane when passing bike” as a major variable-it's an issue, but not a major one in my view.

Keywords: bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, pavement colouring, streets

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring, streets

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring, bicycle collisions

Quote: A study conducted in Denmark found that blue painted bicycle lanes at intersections resulted in a 38% decrease in bicycle crashes and 71% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries.

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring

This before-and-after study covers the construction of one-way cycle tracks and lanes, blue cycle crossings and raised exits. It is the biggest study of its kind so far carried out in Denmark. The effects on road safety of all types of traffic both at junctions and on road sections for both accidents and injuries are examined. The effects on the volumes of motor vehicles as well as on bicycle and moped traffic are examined with regard to the construction of one way cycle tracks and lanes. Lastly, cycle facilities impact on cyclists? perceived risk and satisfaction on road sections and at junctions is also examined.

Keywords: bicycle planning, bicycle collisions, pavement colouring, bike box

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring

Keywords: bicycle planning, pavement colouring