Bike freeway

A bike freeway, also known as a cycling superhighway, fast cycle route or bicycle highway, is an informal name for a bicycle path that is meant for long-distance traffic. There is no official definition of a bicycle highway. The characteristics of a cycle motorway mentioned by authorities and traffic experts include an absence of single-level intersections with motorized traffic, a better road surface (preferably asphalt or concrete) and the absence of traffic lights. Bicycle highways are mentioned in connection with traffic jam. Due to higher average speeds than normal cycling infrastructure, they should be an alternative for the car in commuter traffic. Often a cycle motorway follows the route of a railway.

In the Netherlands, the following people can use a bike freeway:

In the Netherlands the bicycle highway is not defined in the RVV (Dutch: Reglement verkeersregels en verkeerstekens). However, there is a guideline for developing bicycle highways. The Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management describes the bicycle highway as a long cycle path without crossings, on which cyclists can travel long distances. By building bicycle highways, the government hopes, among other things, to promote the use of bicycles for commuter traffic and thus prevent traffic jams. [1]

In Belgium this type of cycle path is not mentioned in the Road Code. In Belgium, especially the provincial governments and the Flemish Region take the initiative for the construction of a bicycle motorway. At the Flemish Regional level there are no guidelines on the design of cycle highways, only on 'normal' cycle paths. In practice, there are differences between the provinces. This is because the competent Flemish civil servants (MOW, Department of Policy) and agencies (AWV) are also organized per province, so that different emphases are sometimes set for each province. Usually there are also pieces of a bicycle highway with mixed traffic. They may also be used by cars and trucks. They are called a bicycle highway because of the route signaling.

There is no maximum speed (for cyclists), unless indicated otherwise. A bicycle highway is not numbered as a bicycle highway, as is usual for the motorway in the road overview.

The cost of building a bicycle super highway depends on many things, but is usually between €300000/km (for a wide dedicated cycle track) and €800000/km (when complex civil engineering structures are needed).

In the Netherlands: The minimum desired width of the bicycle lane is 2.00 meters on the bicycle highway. The absolute minimum width of the bicycle lane is 1.50 meters.

In Belgium:

The first Dutch route opened in 2004 between Breda and Etten-Leur; many others have been added since then. In 2017 several bicycle superhighways were opened in the Arnhem-Nijmegen region, with the RijnWaalpad as the best example of this new type of cycling infrastructure.

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Wikipedia