1. Home
  2. TRID
  3. View Record
https://www.nationalacademies.org/trb/events

ROADS IN URBAN AREAS. REPORT FROM THE NETHERLANDS --PIARC XVIII WORLD ROAD CONGRESS, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, SEPTEMBER 13-19, 1987

Since the previous world road congress, the trends in the Netherlands in the traffic sector can be characterized by the key words socialization, retrenchment, "deregulation", and concentration. As an intermediate form between traditionally organized streets and the co-called "woonerfs", the 30 km/h street has been introduced to offer another possibility for making a clear distinction between residential areas and traffic arteries. To maintain the comparatively large share of the bicycle in the modal split at Delft, a plan has been evolved to promote the safe and comfortable use of the bicycle in this town through the introduction of a large number of small-scale facilities incorporated in the road network. In the "new town" of houten, the urban setup and the traffic structure selected have resulted in a marked deviation of the modal split from normal, toward public transport and bicycle. A survey conducted in The Hague has shown that the ratio between the weighting factors for riding as public transport passenger, walking from and to it, and waiting for such transport was 1 : 2 : 6; the weighting assigned to changing over was 11 times that of 1 minute's ride. In a demonstration project relative to reclassification and reorganization of urban areas at rijswijk and Eindhoven it was found that residential streets that had been comparatively unsafe were made safer by reorganization. At doorn and oosterhout, the problems encountered on school routes have been the subject of systematic analysis, whereupon the introduction of specific traffic provisions has led to a significant drop in the number of accidents. Where no free bicycle tracks can be provided, bicycle lanes marked on the carriageway find general appreciation among cyclists, although there is no conclusive evidence showing that such lanes improve road safety. For handicapped people, apart from standard facilities that can be applied anywhere, systems have been developed which help them cross the street at traffic lights without affecting traffic flow control disproportionately. Daily queue formation during the morning rush hour on the eastern access road of Amsterdam has led to the introduction of a flow regulating system. While it proved impossible to increase the total capacity of the route, the system did have the effect of eliminating the extreme nuisance caused by congestion in the suburb of diemen. A study concerning two road sections has demonstrated the possibility of saving 5 to 15% fuel by the application of special traffic light control systems optimized for energy consumption. Among the findings produced by the study was that frequently traditional systems of coordinated control (green waves) are less than optimal from the viewpoint of fuel consumption, particularly because too little attention is paid in such systems to the delay they impose on crossing traffic.(a) for the covering abstracts of the congress see IRRD 812115 and 812116.

  • Corporate Authors:

    Permanent International Assoc of Road Congresses

    27 rue Guenegaud
    Paris,   France 
  • Authors:
    • Slop, M
  • Publication Date: 0

Language

  • English

Media Info

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00481325
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS
  • Created Date: Apr 30 1989 12:00AM