Last week I was in Tilburg in The Netherlands. There is a pedestrian crossing which has all the good features every crossing should have and I thought I’d share a few photos and a video of it. Streetview link.
I was immediately struck by the width of the crossing, as well as the long crossing phases and the short time people had to wait before being able to cross.
In summary, it is direct, convenient and responsive.
- The crossing has a very short cycle and almost 50% of the time is given to the crossing phase.
- The crossing is very wide, it has a huge capacity and suits all pedestrian desire lines.
- The crossing is direct, people can cross in one go without having to cross to an intermediate island.
- The crossing has countdown timers for the wait and crossing phases.
- Bicycles can cross the crossing as well as pedestrians. There are cycle tracks on each side of the road behind the crossing meaning that bikes never have to wait at a red signal.
This is the sort of crossing that I think we should be attempting to imitate as part of the Sheffield University Masterplan across Western Bank.
As an aside, it seemed to me that there was far too much motor traffic using this road in the centre of town, it’d be a much more pleasant place if there was less of it.