Shared Space 

Project title: Redesign of the Brouwerstraat, Katwijk, the Netherlands

Client and Question: The municipality of Katwijk, the Netherlands, needed to redesign the Brouwerstraat, in order to increase its safety level. Over the years, the ongoing growth of traffic, nowadays 10,000 cars per day, had reduced its liveability for residents. The street scheme could no longer provide the desired level of traffic safety.

Result: Mobycon worked on a new street scheme in a multidisciplinary design team. The chosen design narrows the road instead of widening it, which would have been the more standard approach. By narrowing it, we intentionally prioritized the cyclist’s position in traffic. The new road width only allows for two busses to just pass each other. Overtaking cyclists then becomes harder. As driving speed goes down through this radical approach, the traffic safety level rises. The extra space resulting from narrowing the road was used to widen the sidewalks, thereby enhancing quality of life.

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Project title: Reconstruction of ‘De Poort’, the central crossing in Woudenberg

Client and Question:The village of Woudenberg was founded at the crossing of two major roads. Over time, the North-South route has been upgraded to a busy provincial artery road. The East-West route, with a lot of shops and restaurants, is still a local car route, besides being used by cyclists, pedestrians, residents and shoppers. In order to increase the traffic flow on the artery road and to enhance the liveability on the local road, the municipality of Woudenberg asked Mobycon to conduct a study of the traffic circulation, including a reconstruction design of the crossing.

Result: In the study of the circulation of traffic throughout the village we suggested a centre without cars, a buffer around this centre point with reduced car traffic and an outer shell with ‘normal’ car access. On the East-West road the traffic flow was only permitted in one direction, thus lowering the pressure of traffic on the surroundings. Our experience is that local shops often benefit from diminished car access and a better cycle and pedestrian access. The centre point, De Poort, was closed to cars, by constructing a wide pedestrian and cycle crossing. The main artery road safely traversed this crossing at an easy pace. The former traffic lights were not even necessary anymore. Mobycon designed this crossing in a multidisciplinary approach together with civil engineers.

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Project title: Reconstruction of the central roads in Waddinxveen          

Client and Question:The Kerkweg Oost (Churchroad East) is the main entrance of the village of Waddinxveen, the Netherlands. Over time, car use of this road has intensified. A lot of heavy freight trucks pass the road every day. This has negatively influenced traffic safety, especially for cyclists. The municipality of Waddinxveen asked Mobycon, together with a civil engineering company, to redesign Kerkweg Oost, the main crossing on this road, and a side road, the Oranjelaan. 

Result: After evaluating the main traffic policy documents and traffic circulation policies of the municipality, we suggested that a small roundabout was the optimal type of crossing in this centre. The Kerkweg Oost has been redesigned with separate bike lanes, which pass outside the crossing to the adjacent roads. Because of a lack of space, the roundabout is quite small in diameter. Large vehicles can use the middle island as a backup space for the rear wheels. The side road of Oranjelaan, which used to have a lot of rat run traffic, has been redesigned as a small local road, just wide enough for a car and a truck to pass each other (only 6 metres wide).