In many places in the world, infrastructure for cycling is being prepared in a short time at the expense of private car lanes, but in Israel most places insist on paving special paths so as not to damage the speed of vehicles. A new guide published at the ITF’s largest transportation conference in the world, held last month in Leipzig, Germany, shows how fast and safe lanes for bicycle infrastructure can be produced. In Tel Aviv, it seems that the situation is improving, but even there the distance from the leading countries in bicycle transportation is still light years away.
Learn from experience: how to increase riding abroad
In the Netherlands, in addition to aspects of investing in infrastructure, educators from a young age also ride safely, urban planning encourages it, there are norms and legislation that limit the speed of travel in cities and there is enforcement up to the level of the flashlight installed on the bike.
The Netherlands is the most famous example of the success of urban transport by bicycle, but it is not the only one. In Oslo, in 2015, the policy of paving the bicycle infrastructure was changed. Until then, in many places in the city, 1.5-meter-wide lanes had been prepared and they were cut down many times before the end of the street. But then it was decided that the bikes also get priority at the expense of the traffic lanes of the private vehicles.
In Oslo, the perception of safe paths also changed: if until before the reform, safety was perceived as preventing road accidents, then since its establishment, the sense of security has also been examined. Studies show that most people and especially women, children or the elderly will not use bicycles if they do not feel safe.
Tel Aviv. Exceptional to the situation in Israel, but even there the pace of transition to bicycles is unsatisfactory / Photo: Shutterstock
The same primary bicycle lanes led to higher demand and respectively to higher quality training of infrastructure. According to the guide, the insights from the Oslo case are that it is possible to pave relatively quickly, but should continue to improve later.
During the Corona plague, the transition to bicycles in Europe accelerated. In Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced a revolution to evacuate public space from private vehicles for the benefit of cyclists, and the city has created hundreds of miles for cycling. Later, the 15-minute revolution was announced – through changes in the public space, the city’s residents will be able to reach all their needs in 15 minutes of walking or riding.
Photos: Shlomi Yosef, Shutterstock / ASAP Creative
Bogota also suffers from huge traffic jams but the city already covers more than 600 km of bike paths, making its network the largest in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. Is to transfer 50% of travel to cycling and micro-mobility.
Weaknesses: Speed and nodes
While creating separate bike paths takes many months and sometimes many years, training bike paths based on existing road infrastructure is quick and can also be done safely. The guide, written by riders’ organizations in Denmark, the United States and the Netherlands together with city planners and supported by the Bloomberg Foundation, was published by the International Research Organization World Resources Institute and presented at the OECD’s largest ITF conference in the world.
During the conference, the authors showed that the higher the speed of the vehicle, the greater the likelihood of pedestrians and cyclists being killed in a collision with them. At a speed of 30 km / h the probability of injury leading to death is 10%, at a speed of 40 km / h it rises to 30%, and at 50 km / h it climbs to 85%.
Bicycle lanes in Oslo / Photo: Shutterstock
Therefore, the design principles adapt the bicycle infrastructure to the speed of vehicle movement. For example, on a common street for vehicles and bicycles, the speed of travel will be limited to 30 km / h and the volume of traffic of less than 2,000 vehicles per day. A sign alone will not suffice on such a street, and it also requires various means of reducing traffic.
A bicycle lane marked on the road is suitable for speeds of up to 40 km / h and a traffic volume of less than 6,000 vehicles per day. A protected or separated bicycle path will be established on streets where the speed limit is 50 km / h and more than 6,000 vehicles pass per day. In such cases the bike path will be physically separated and is suitable for arterial roads.
The guide also includes “do’s” and “don’ts” in path training. For example it is better to produce wide lanes 2.2 meters wide in each direction to allow safe driving. It is important that the bike path is with the direction of travel, and must be close to the sidewalk. The trail must provide safe places for slowing down, stopping and stopping. The guide denies training lanes against the direction of traffic that creates conflicts at intersections and parking lots, and denies two-way bicycle lanes unless they are completely separated from vehicular traffic. Such trails are less convenient from an urban point of view because they do not allow spontaneous traffic but they save space for private vehicles and are therefore very common in Israel.
According to the guide, the bicycle infrastructure does not have to include a lane or path at all: it can also be a slow street that includes bicycle parking and means of reducing traffic and restricting the entry of vehicles.
The European guide lists a number of rules for planning intersections: eliminating parking spaces at least 10 meters before reaching the intersection to increase visibility, the bike path that crosses the intersection must be prominent and marked, the right of vehicles before crossing must end before the right of riders to the field of vision Their will be larger when crossing the junction and also drivers will be able to see better the riders and pedestrians in the space.
The crossings can be raised to the height of the sidewalk to protect pedestrians and cyclists crossing the intersection – especially important on wide roads and in the event of an intersection between such a road and a narrow street, to reduce the speed of cars facing the narrow street.
The situation in Israel: slow and poor quality execution
The annual paving rate in Israel is very low and stands at about 32 km per year. The exception is Tel Aviv, which is paving relatively quickly, and in 2020, for example, paved half of the national development.
Some of the guidelines in the guide are implemented in Israel, but many of them are not. Although Israel is a country where the weather is considered relatively comfortable for riding, and many cities are certainly flat along the coastal plain, but bicycle lanes at the expense of private car lanes are almost never built. In most cities the speed limit is 50 km / h and the road allows the driver to drive even faster than allowed by law, so a complete separation is required which makes it difficult to create the bicycle infrastructure and takes longer.
To apply these principles one has to significantly reduce the speed of travel not only through a sign but also through geometric changes in roads which can also be done quickly like increasing margins in turns to force a slow turn with a larger field of view, applying “road diet” and widening at the expense of sidewalks and creating Bicycle infrastructure at the expense of existing lanes, you can also narrow the private wide lanes that will require slower travel.
But in Israel, many times in order not to slow down the movement of private vehicles, separate paths are chosen even in places where this can be saved. Such trails cost a lot more money, are engineeringly complicated, and are done negligently when completed before intersections and force riders to risk themselves in conflicts with cars. The trails also “take up” more space than the width of the road and therefore are often given up – thus endangering the riders even more.
Lior Steinberg, founder of the Dutch urban planning company Humankind, which is also involved in projects in Israel, explains that “people all over the world are similar, and bicycles all over the world are built the same.
According to him, in most countries of the world there is a lack of experience in the field of bicycles and therefore with the help of uniform design rules, cities all over the world will be able to build bicycle infrastructures based on knowledge accumulated over decades.
“Israel has the potential to be an international cycling power: it is small, crowded, flat in most places, and has a young population. Compared to Denmark and the Netherlands, Israel also has pleasant weather all year round except the summer months. But when it is too hot, electric bikes do the job.”
Bicycle lanes in Amsterdam. The transition to cycling has risen high in the priority list of cities / Photo: Shutterstock
Steinberg, however, cools the enthusiasm: “Unfortunately, the reason Israel does not become such lies in two problems: arrogance and fear. Instead of copying the proven solutions, everything is reinvented, and it does not work. In projects where I work in Israel, I try not to invent anything. I take the The Dutch solution and complies with the laws in the country.
“The second reason is that decision-makers and politicians are afraid to make courageous decisions, such as removing parking spaces, reducing lanes and removing free turns to the right of cars. That will make their city clean, quiet, egalitarian, and prosperous. “
The World Guide recommends temporary separation between the bicycle lane and the car lanes using planters, cones and tundra and the use of paints, but in Israel many of these measures are prohibited by the guidelines, which delays execution. In contrast, the guidelines do allow for the right turn of a private vehicle in parallel with the forward ride of the cyclist Steinberg explains that in doing so they put the rider’s nose in danger of death because the driver does not have enough field of vision to notice it.
Points for optimism: Part of the budget was received
There are also points for optimism: the Ministry of Transportation is formulating a national master plan for training bicycle infrastructure, in which several kilometers of cycling routes required throughout the country in built-up areas were examined and the budget estimate for the entire network is NIS 8 billion. The budget is divided into Chumashim within the framework of NIS 2 billion per Chumash. Bicycle chains for Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Beer Sheva will be derived from the national master plan, and a network for the Central District will be completed.
The budget given to the next five years reflects an investment of NIS 39 per resident, compared to NIS 10 previously. To complete the network a similar budget will be required for the next three pentagrams as well. By comparison, other countries are investing more even though they already have a fairly well-developed network of riding infrastructure. For example, England invests NIS 50 per resident, Germany invests NIS 32-70 per resident and the Netherlands NIS 138. As part of the work on the master plan, a unified guide to the training of bicycle paths and paths will be built these days, which will be binding on all projects in the country.
The working assumption underlying the National Master Plan is that it will be possible to reach a 10% travel split percentage through cycling compared to only 1% today.
However, as the European guide proves, God is in the small details, in which Israel, as mentioned, lags behind. The big challenge is to spend on such projects in local authorities while giving a required waiver in a large proportion of cases of parking spaces and lanes for the private car.
The local authorities, with the exception of Tel Aviv, have so far not shown willingness to pave bicycle paths, although some have had master plans approved for years. Although the Ministry of Transportation signs agreements with local authorities to pave paths, it is doubtful whether these will be implemented in general and in particular in the next year and a half until the local elections. The enormous potential, which has been realized in many of the cities of the world in the last two years, has stopped in Israel within the borders of Tel Aviv.
Response: “Promoting sustainable transportation”
The Ministry of Transportation stated: “In 2020, the Ministry completed the guidelines for planning cycling infrastructure. In this work, all traffic arrangements customary in Europe were considered. While in selected European countries the use of bicycles as a means of daily use Central to the transport space is in the early stages of implementation, so many of the traffic arrangements in these countries have been adopted in the guidelines of the Ministry of Transportation, in order to promote the daily riding culture in Israel. And devices through a variety of ways. ”
Another angle / Zebang and we finished: “It must be done at once and not in stages”
Jill Warren, Executive Director of the European Cycling Federation (ECF), the umbrella organization of more than 70 cycling organizations in Europe and abroad, took part in the presentation of the cycling infrastructure guide at the ITF conference. In an interview with Globes, Warren says, “We see more awareness of importance Of active mobility – walking and cycling – in a safer way. First and foremost it means separating the riders from the cars. The number one reason people sting when asked why they no longer ride bicycles is a sense of security, so it is clear that separate riding infrastructure is an important factor in riders’ sense of comfort and confidence in deciding whether to ride. “
Many leaders declare that they want bicycle infrastructure, but how do you make sure it really happens?
“When you prefer active mobility such as walking or cycling, this preference should be supported by a clear plan with clear budgeting. We need to understand that there is a way to do – change thinking and attitude as well as change resource allocation policy. A major deputy mayor of Europe told me that 70% of the area in his city is allocated to cars, ie roads and parking lots, which is a huge area. The situation is very similar in many other cities. Bicycles because we are all pedestrians at the end. “
Warren explains that mayors are very concerned about the distribution of public resources to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users but she also has a proposal for a solution: “Many mayors want to implement policies to promote walking and cycling and produce more vibrant and vibrant cities The resistance and reluctance at the time of the announcement of the change or when the works begin when the parking spaces are taken from residents.
“Therefore, when mayors who have taken such steps advise their colleagues they say – if you do something like this, you must do it at once and not in stages because people will resent but adapt to it and later most of them will also love it and will not want to go back.”
“There are many benefits to cycling,” says Warren, “ranging from environmental benefits of reducing pollutant emissions through huge health benefits of active mobility as opposed to sitting in a car. There are also social impacts as access to employment opportunities expands as well as cultural and social institutions. Riders spend more money. In local businesses and there is better connectivity even to remote places, so this is a better policy than chasing more roads for cars. ”