City Infinity

A street in Cambridge, England. Bollards in the foreground, and again in the distance, preventing motor access to a short section of a cycle route which before and after runs on streets open to traffic, but very quiet. Another walking/cycling route merges via a bridge crossing river on the right.

Riverside, Cambridge. Not on a boundary, but similarly a short section of cycleway between two sections of street open to traffic. NB also protecting junction between two active routes (bridge descending to the right).

A Dutch road which has a red surface. There is a side road to the left and just beyond, a couple of centre bollards on a white lozenge marking for a short cycle track before becoming a road once more, but still red. There are flats to the left, behind a footway and a canal to the right.

This modal filter on Cromvlietkade marks the border between Rijswijk and Den Haag. It's not a route for motors, but provides a main cycling route which subtlety changes from cycle street to cycle track and back to cycle street with no loss of momentum for people cycling.

#FridayFun

Better places simply cannot be delivered without LTNs. The are key to network planning and their use unlocks so much.

Apart from some notable exceptions, much of the UK simply has not critically reviewed its network function which means we are tinkering with a broken system.

Key traffic signs and priority rules — for anyone planning to ride in the Netherlands You’re very welcome to ride a bicycle in the Netherlands, whether during your holidays or as part of a study tour. But for everyone’s benefit — and especially for your own safety and that of others — it really helps to know the basic rules of the road. Locals sometimes complain about the behaviour of visitors on rental bikes, and it would be great if your presence in traffic didn’t draw negative attention.

Cycling in the Netherlands isn’t a novelty — it’s everyday transport.
I made a new post and video explaining key traffic signs and priority rules — for anyone planning to ride here.

Group of cyclists using a floating bus stop with a clear glazed shelter & a Brighton & Hove bus on the road in a bus lane being overtaken by a queue of cars

Children cutting a ribbon on a cycle track with bicycles either side & politicians behind (L-R Ian Davey, Cabinet Member for Transport BHCC; Norman Baker MP, Minister for Roads; Jason Kitcat, Leader of BHCC - also Ben Sherrat of Sustrans in Green tshirt), while a 25 bus pulls into the stop

We've had them for real in Brighton since *May* 2013 when 14 floating bus stops were installed along Lewes Rd. Opened by then Roads Minister Norman Baker without much fuss (also @iandaveysussex.bsky.social)... Been working fine for over a decade & AFAIK no reported conflicts with bus passengers

but nothing has been discussed around that as far as we know.

The beacons and zig-zags were there because it predated the current rules (which this trial helped inform) and since then only a few really busy sites have beacons.

There is an argument for some kind of upright sign because when there is a crowd of people cycling, it is hard to see a crossing ahead

The raised crossing and stripes are very useful for people with visual and mobility impairments, but the hump needs to be a gentle change in level otherwise it couses an issue for some folks with non-standard cycles.

The view from the passenger island of a floating bus stop with a cycle track to the left and the road to the right. There is a zebra crossing over the cycle track. Someone is cycling in a hivis while people stand on the footway to the left of the cycle track in hivis.

A floating bus stop being trialled by TRL for Transport for London in November 2013. It reminds us that the unfamiliar takes time to become familiar and it isn't always a simple journey. Perhaps the conversation needs to shift to a real vision of human-scale future streets?

#FridayFun

Actually lots of extra help in this guidance with more nuance around different conditions and much of this should be standard practice anyway.

It won't change the minds of the folks who are against floating bus stops and it still leaves us with the edge cases of shared use bus boarders plus

Me, Mark and Ben at Finsbury Park

Mark on his bike outside Finsbury Park

Would you look at this everyone! The @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social
AKA Mark the mobility visionary came to visit us in Haringey today!

He gave us his thoughts on Green Lanes as we cycled along it, looking at everything. There was also some drama.

So what did he think? Let’s gooo! ⬇️ 1/18

Diverse group in front of Hammersmith Bridge, carrying signs including "Hammersmith Bridge is open" with symbols of people walking, wheeling and cycling.

It's been a busy weekend at Hammersmith Bridge. We were delighted to be joined by so many wanting to share how well the bridge works without cars.

(Image by Paul James - many more excellent ones here: photography.paulrichardjames.net/Collections/...)

Netherlands 25: Riding from Duinrell to Den Haag As the closest big city, Den Haag is a regular visit when we’re staying at Duinrell. Being just 13 km away on bike, it’s a fairly manageable ride, with multiple routes to choose from. W…

Once a traffic sewer, Den Haag's main shopping street Grote Marktstraat is now space for people, while remaining a key route for cycling. Shows what can be done, even in a fairly car-centric city like Den Haag.

In the latest #Netherlands25 post, join us on a ride to Den Haag #Bikesky

A spoof version of an Ultra Low Emission Zone traffic sign. It is green and in landscape with white writing at the top saying "Ultra low excitement" it is over a white circle with "ULEZ" in green in the centre and then back to "ZONE" in white at the bottom. There is a panel at the very top which is white with black writing "Nine local residents" with a shield logo to the left with "NLR" in the middle. It is a really good spoof and has been properly designed!

Seen somewhere in Chichester City Centre, this is a local piece of guerrilla humour by the Chichester Anti-Recreation Society (CARP) which is a poke at the city city being apparently too serious about little things.

We can't condone unauthorised signs but we do love a #SpoofSign.

#FridayFun

Link to my slides from last evening's @activetravelcaf.bsky.social here:

East London residents win sensational victory in fight to save low-traffic schemes London-wide implications for LTNs as Court of Appeal rules that Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman acted unlawfully in trying to ignore Sadiq Khan’s transport masterplan

After 2+ years of legal battles, the Court of Appeal has ruled in our favour.
Tower Hamlets cannot lawfully remove our safer streets. A huge precedent for London.

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

When Space Runs Out: Rethinking the Role of the Car in Dutch Cities Dutch cities are changing rapidly. One of the aims of this blog is to document that change, and there is plenty of work ahead. Much of what I record involves changes to streets: a before-and-after of a reconstructed street is relatively easy to capture in images. Shiny new cycling bridges can steal the show, and a new continuous-cycle route perhaps even more so.

As Dutch cities continue to grow, space is being reallocated to walking, cycling and public transport. Across the Netherlands, the role of the private car is being reconsidered. New blog post and video.

Link here cityinfinity.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

A woman in a pale green coat cycles over the green right hand side of a parallel crossing over an arm of a roundabout.

A blue and white bus negotiating (very well) a tightly designed roundabout which has a cycle track on an arm just out of shot to the right.

A person in a bright green green coat cycles over the green right hand side of a parallel crossing over an arm of a roundabout

A woman using a small mobility scooter crossing the left hand zebra side of a parallel crossing over an arm of a roundabout.

It was quite Dutch-style roundabouty in Chichester this morning.

Running very well in my view.

I do like this little scheme on Bayley St - just off Tottenham Court Rd.

This was a signal controlled junction from a one-way street, contraflow cycling was added & then the junction filtered with a cycle track.

Now it's a bike lane & a new public space with SuDS. 🚲☔️☘️💚

Two photos of the same main road in Hoogeveen. The earlier image shows a wide, car-dominated street with no separate cycling space. The later image shows the road narrowed for cars, with a wide red bidirectional cycle track where several teenage boys cycle together, separated from traffic by trees and parking.

Two photos of the same street in Hoogeveen. The earlier image shows a wide roadway focused on motor traffic, with no protected cycling facilities. The later image shows a redesigned street with a red bidirectional cycle track, greenery and calmer traffic, where three teenage girls ride side by side.

Many streets in the Netherlands once looked like those in the UK today. What matters is what happened next. Hoogeveen shows this clearly: a car-dominated main road in 2019, upgraded by 2024 with cycle tracks. Dutch roads are continuously improved to make cycling safer & neighbourhoods more pleasant

It's only a cut-through rather than a busy cycle track and in any case, all cycle tracks permit walking - humans don't always follow the routes the design process gives them!

Cycling through the Rijksmuseum passage in Amsterdam, through one of the world’s most iconic museums. Local residents fought to keep it open when renovation plans nearly closed it, and today it’s used by thousands of cyclists every day. A truly unique piece of cycling infrastructure.

The view along a 2-way grey block paved cycle track with an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing in the foreground with rain gardens on both sides of the cycle track with seating at the end.

Off London's Tottenham Court Road, Bayley Street shows that cities change. Originally a signal controlled junction from a one-way street, contraflow cycling was added and then the junction filtered with a cycle track. Today the cycling is still there, but the area is now a little square.

#FridayFun

Digital signs above bike parking indicating how many spots are left

Entrance to bike parking facility indicating how many spots are left

Sensors detecting if bikes are present

The new Stadttunnel bicycle parking facility in Zurich offers 1,240 parking spaces.

Located inside a 440-metre-long bicycle tunnel beneath Zürich Central Station, it is equipped with Abel Sensors’ SmartParking technology.

#DCEnetwork

The reason I go on about self-driving cars is that it's like watching somebody spend 20 minutes using a thimble to fill a kettle and them saying "I can't wait for the glorious day when I'll have a robot to carry this thimble for me"

Greenery alongside the cycle track creates a nice separation between bikes and traffic, helps rainwater retention and biodiversity, and trees help provide shade from the sun and rain

A timely reminder to @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social that when he gets round to writing a blog post about "cycleway" maintenance that he includes winter service!

Ride in the Snow (’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands) Last week was exceptional and this called for an extra post! The Netherlands had not seen this much snow in about five years. The video I recorded and published last week was filmed in Utrecht on Monday morning, when many people were heading to work for the first time in 2026. At that moment, we had no idea what was still to come.

A rare week of snow in the Netherlands! ❄️ I took a 19 km ride through ’s-Hertogenbosch while the city was covered in white. Slow, real-time, and surprisingly safe — despite what some online comments suggest! 🚲 (Includes a Short as well)

Wednesday morning rush hour at Utrecht Central Station. Seen from two perspectives.