Smart adjustments to one of the busiest bicycle intersections in Amsterdam
One of Amsterdam’s busiest intersections has been improved for cyclists. The intersection Vrijheidslaan – Amsteldijk on the west side of Berlage Bridge has been improved with the so-called KIM approach. This means that relatively small infrastructural measures (In Dutch: Kleine Infra Maatregelen, KIM) have been implemented to make more space for bicycle traffic at intersections and allow for better flow.
More bicycle-friendly intersections
The municipality of Amsterdam has implemented this KIM approach at several intersections. With these interventions cyclists experience more space and less stress. Some of these measures were given appealing names such as the banana (narrowing traffic islands into banana-shaped islands) and the chip cone (bicycle crossings that are wide where cyclists need a lot of space when waiting and getting started, and then become narrower). Other measures include wider curves in the cycle path, improved and simplified road markings, and cross markings that prevent waiting and driving cyclists to be in each other’s way. Also, often the flow for cyclists can be improved by changing the traffic lights for cyclists. Such as longer green time, or more often green.
Bike crowds
The KIM approach starts with an extensive analysis of traffic flows and bottlenecks. At the intersection of Vrijheidslaan – Amsteldijk it turned that the bicycle flows to and from Berlagebrug turned out to be the largest. And even the busiest in Amsterdam with 24,000 cyclists per day. Especially during morning rush hour, there was far too little space for all those cyclists.
Measures
Measures have been taken at many places at the intersection. A selection:
| New lay-out of the intersection. North is up, Berlagebrug is to the right
A. On the northeastern corner (location A in the design drawing), cyclists coming from the bridge that need to wait at the traffic light used to block the road for cyclists from the south. Extra space was found by adjusting the curve radius and widening the crossing. The cross marking ensures that space remains free for cyclists who go straight ahead. This has been applied at several places at this intersection.
B. The northern branchhas one car lane less in the new design. This was turned into more space for cyclists at the corners and on the central island. While still sufficient space for cars is left. The former extra car lane is still partly visible in the design drawing. In reality there is a middle island in its place.
C. On the northwestern corner there was insufficient space for cyclists waiting for the traffic light and cyclists coming from Berlage Bridge. Here, the space for cyclists has increased nearly fivefold: from 5 m2 to 24 m2.
D. On the southwestern corner the capacity used to be significantly inadequate for the large flow of cyclists towards Berlagebrug. Cyclists often stood on the road, or diverted to the sidewalk or the zebra. In the new situation, the waiting space has been widened considerably: from 2 meters to 6.5 meters. Space was found by removing the separate lane for cars turning right from Vrijheidslaan onto Amsteldijk. These cars now drive together with straight going cars. When turning right, they now use a piece of the (little-used) tram tracks to the tram depot.
E. On the southeastern corner cyclists from Amsteldijk who turning right onto Berlagebrug used to come in conflict with the large flow of cyclists from Vrijheidslaan. Also, cyclists had narrow passages between islands. As a result, real bicycle traffic jams arose. The crossing from Vrijheidslaan has now been widened with an extra wide access towards Berlagebrug. Also, this large flow of cyclists no longer need to interact with waiting cyclists along Amsteldijk as the stop line for these cyclists has been replaced. The unnecessary traffic islands have been removed and a separate right-turn lane has been created for cyclists turning right from Amsteldijk onto Berlagebrug.
| Cycling onto Berlagebrug, before and after the renovation. Photo ML
| On the northeastern corner, location C. Photo EvE
Traffic lights arrangement
In addition to all these infrastructural changes, the traffic lights have also been adjusted to further improve the flow of bicycle traffic. Detection loops (that were still missing in the old situation) have been installed. With them the bike flows can better be estimated and processed by the traffic lights installation.
On Berlage Bridge
The situation on Berlage Bridge itself has also been improved for cyclists. The cycle paths have been widened. But since the historic bridge cannot be made wider, they are still not wide enough for all the cyclists. Therefore, the edges are made forgiving, in this case slanted.
Berlage Bridge has an interesting cycling history.
