Creative solution to prevent unwanted bicycle parking
Crowned paving at crucial places can help road safety. Bicycles cannot be parked on a kick stand on steeply crowned pavement. Thus, they cannot block the view so that road users can see each other better. It was by chance that Amsterdam’s Working group for Blackspots discovered this use of crowning (bolstraten in Dutch).
‘We came across intersections where parked bicycles posed a danger. When turning there, drivers mainly had a view of a mountain of parked bicycles,’ says Geert van Ham, chairman of Amsterdam’s Working group for Blackspots (WBA).
In the WBA, all dangerous intersections and road sections in the city are discussed and tackled. Together with the designers of the Spatial Planning department, plans are made for improvements in the short and long term. The idea of crowning originated there. By making the paving so steeply crowned that bicycles on a kick stand will fall over, it simply becomes impossible to park bicycles there. The crowned parts are paved in white bricks.
Multiple locations
Up till now, this measure has been applied in Marnixplein, Middenweg and the roundabout of Hugo de Grootplein. Usually, it is applied on islands on the corner of a side street or exit where many bikes are parked.
I Crowned pavement prevents parked bicycles blocking the view on the exits of Hugo de Grootplein.
I Marnixplein: crowned pavement ensures a good view at the bike crossing.
Van Ham: ‘On Middenweg is a strip between the road and the cycle path where bicycles were parked. Sometimes they fell over ended up lying dangerously on the cycle path. We paved the the whole strip crowned.’
I Convex pavement prevents parked bicycles on strip along bike path of Middenweg.
Simple and effective
“It is a simple and creative solution, which can actually be applied at all places where you really don’t want bicycles being parked,” says Van Ham. ‘In some places it suffices to remove a bicycle rack, and automatically bikes will no longer be parked ther.’ Does he have any tips for other municipalities? ‘Just try it out once. It is not that expensive and very effective.’
Bicycle parking in the side street
The WBA is now working on guidelines to ensure that corners of intersections are kept free from all unnecessary street furniture. Van Ham: ‘When a road is designed, sight lines are taken into account. But once the road is there, that can be forgotten. Especially if the demand for bicycle parking facilities is large, every empty spot is used. We say: better remove one or two parking spaces for cars in a side street and place bicycle racks there. That’s how we did it on the Middenweg, for example.’
