The bicycle is a popular means of transport in The Netherlands. About 30% of all trips and about 10% of all veltiele kilometers travelled in this country are covered by bicycle. However, the still increasing mobility of the population, the limited space available for new infrastructure and also environmental considerations call for the modal split to be further influenced in favour of more use of bicycles. In view of this, the Ministry of Transport drew up the so-called 'Master Plan Fiets' ('Bicycle Master Plan') in 1991, with the aim of ensuring that people would use the bicycle even more, by further enhancing its appeal. This policy requires that the ml\ior drawbacks of cycling be eliminated as much as possible to discourage preferential use of the car. Aspects of the policy include: measures against bicycle theft; measures to improve connections with public transport; and measures to reduce the road hazards associated with cycling. In this paper, I will deal with the latter aspect only. It is considered that one of the main ways to achieve this goal is to improve the safety of the infrastructure for bicycle traffic. My intention is to show you some new ways of arriving at proper solutions to traffic engineering problerns associated with cycle traffic. (Author/publisher)
Abstract