Presentation at the VSVI Seminar "Promotion of bicycle traffic in Thuringia"
On 21 February 2019, the VSVI seminar "Promotion of bicycle traffic in Thuringia" took place in Erfurt. In addition to other speakers, the member of the Chair of Traffic System Planning, Mr. Johannes Vogel, gave a presentation on the guidance of bicycle traffic at local entrances. The event was organized and moderated by Mr. Raimo Harder, member of the Chair of Traffic System Planning, and Ms. Anne Bellmann, traffic planner of the city of Weimar.
The VSVI Thuringia (Association of Road Construction and Traffic Engineers) is a registered association that has set itself the target of professional, technical and scientific training of road construction and traffic engineers in Thuringia. In this context, the VSVI regularly offers seminars and excursions. On February 21st, the seminar "Promotion of bicycle traffic in Thuringia" took place with the support of the Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture (TMIL). It was organized and moderated by Mr. Raimo Harder, employee of the Chair of Traffic System Planning and member of the Presidium of the VSVI Thuringia. The second moderator was Ms. Anne Bellmann, also a former employee of the Chair of Traffic System Planning and currently the responsible traffic planner for the city of Weimar.
In the first presentation of the seminar Ms. Antje Hahn of the Thuringian State Office for Construction and Transport (TLBV) informed about current initiatives of the Thuringian Road Administration for improvements of bicycle traffic in urban areas. In particular, she presented the operational guideline for cross-town links.
Afterwards, Mr. Johannes Vogel, also a member of the Chair of Traffic System Planning, spoke about the safe guidance of bicycle traffic at local entrances. In particular, he stressed the obligation to arrange safe crossing possibilities at the beginning and end of two-direction cycle paths in accordance with the General Administraion Regulations of the German Road Traffic Act (VwV-StVO). In addition, he pointed out that even with relatively low planning and financial effort, improvements in cycle traffic guidance at local entrances can be achieved. Besides to standard solutions and examples, he also provided the present engineers with helpful literature recommendations for sample collections.
After this first theme block, which concentrated particularly on local cross-town links, Mr. Marcel Schreiber of the German Insurers Accident Research (UDV) informed about current research results regarding bicycle traffic safety. He dealt with the obligation to use cycle paths, marked guidance of bicycle traffic (protective strips, cycle lanes) as well as cycle roads and bicycle traffic against the direction of travel in one-way roads.
In the afternoon, a field report on the promotion of cycling in cities with unfavorable topography followed. Ms. Alessia Mainardi of the city administration of Solingen motivated in particular to the fact that in spite of moving topography bicycle traffic promotion is possible and meaningful.
In a last lecture Professor Christine Große from the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt spoke about conflicts and potentials in the opening of pedestrian zones for cyclists. The results of the research project, which was carried out at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, showed above all that the fears, which usually accompany such a measure, are unfounded. Neither the traffic observation carried out after the opening of the pedestrian zones nor a subsequent survey was able to prove any major disadvantages. In contrary, many pedestrians felt even safer in the pedestrian zone after the measure.
The next VSVI seminar focusing on traffic is expected to take place in autumn 2019 on the subject of "barrier-free traffic facilities".