With the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain members off for a week in the Netherlands experiencing the great and good of Drente and Groningen, and the launch of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, here’s a little about the Dutch approach to road transport design.

The Dutch are well known for their relationship with the bicycle, but their attitude to public spaces and transportation goes much further than cycleways. Since the 1990’s, the Dutch have been building roads to a standard they call “Sustainably Safe”.

The five main principles of a sustainably-safe road system are:

• Functionality of roads
• Homogeneity of mass, speed, and direction
• Recognisability of the road design and predictability of the road course and road user behaviour
• Forgivingness of the environment (physical) and between road users (social)
• State awareness by the road use

There are three types of road, each fulfilling a different role and one role only, each should be instantly recognisable, familiar for road users so that the behaviour demanded by the different road types and what they may expect from other road users is obvious.

Through roads

For moving traffic between areas. They provide high speed (80-100km/h) access by motor vehicles, while avoiding town centers and the places people live. Access off of them are limited to keep the number of junctions down and they link exclusively to distributor roads via large traffic controlled junctions or roundabouts.

They are recognisable for usually having no adjacent footway (or grass verges separating the footway) or unmarked side turnings, having clear and obvious road markings, no on street parking, and often for having a central reservation between the lanes of traffic even if there is only a single lane in each direction.

Bicycles and pedestrians (and farm vehicles, horses, and invalid carrages) are not allowed on through roads but are provided for by separate footways or cycleways, or by more direct routes via access roads.

Distributor roads

For moving traffic around areas, they link through roads to access roads via junctions. They provide medium speed movement of motor vehicles (50-80km/h) to destinations within areas by linking up with access roads. They do not provide through movement to other distributor or through roads without making for a longer and slower journey than by using the corresponding through road.

They are recognisable for having an adjacent footway and cycle way (or cycle lane) and having marked side turnings with access roads (often over the grade separated footway and cycleway). They often have road tables around junctions, and no on street parking other than that in designated parking bays.

Like through roads, bicycles and pedestrians are not allowed on distributor roads but are provided for by separate footways, cycleways or cycle lanes, or by more direct routes via access roads.

Access roads

Provide access to houses, shops and offices. They provide slow traffic movement (30-60km/h) between distributor roads and their final destinations, they do not provide through routes and are heavily traffic calmed.

Rural access roads are often uniquely marked to give an impression of a narrow road and to give over half the road space to bicycles and pedestrians. They contain unmarked junctions and sometimes provide leisure or scenic route otherwise served by distributor or through roads.

Urban access roads provide access to houses and shops. Car parking is only allowed in designated parking places, the road surface is often made of street bricks and unmarked acting as a natural traffic calmer. Access to urban access roads is often via crossing an above grade footway and/or cycleway acting like a natural speed bump, slowing traffic before it enters the access road and causing it to give way to pedestrians and cyclists.

Unlike through roads, access roads are primarily for bicycles and pedestrians and separate footways and cycleways are not required.

All this means that road users know what to expect and how to behave, leading to a predictable network that minimises conflict and engineers dangers out of the system as much as possible.

Find out more about Sustainable Safety.