In my series of longer fast cycle routes in the Netherlands I take you to one of the oldest ones this time. This route from the city of Tilburg to the nearby town of Oisterwijk was first built in 1977. It is an 8 kilometer long route with mostly priority for cyclists. Nowadays it is one of many longer distance high quality intercity cycle routes in the Netherlands.
When it was first constructed it was known as TOF (Tilburg – Oisterwijk – Fietsroute) the word ‘tof’ in Dutch means ‘terrific’ and that was of course no coincidence. Although the 2004 Breda – Etten-Leur route is acknowledged as the first cycle super highway, this much older route is actually not that different. The width is similar and this route also has red asphalt. The use of that red asphalt was very modern in 1977. In those days most cycle paths were paved with concrete tiles. The main difference is that this route does not have priority everywhere. There is also a short stretch where some farms may use the path to get to their properties with motorised vehicles.
The full route in very high-speed
Unfortunately one viaduct was closed due to road construction during filming that is why there are hardly any cyclists. Of course there was a good detour, but the video shows the route as it would normally be followed.
The second video gives you a further look into this cycle route. What does the town of Oisterwijk look like, what do the junctions look like. How do other traffic users behave around cyclists and vice versa. Not everything goes as it should be. There is a red light jumper at 3:16. This boy was totally distracted by his mobile phone and was nearly hit by a car. You can see I almost dropped the camera as it caught me by surprise too and it was quite scary. The driver honks in anger. Needless to say that if the driver would have had hit the cyclist he would not have been at fault. That is not how strict liability works!
A further look into the cycle route and the towns it connects.
This is the third of a series where we look at high quality fast cycle paths in the Netherlands.
BICYCLE DUTCH 
Not to hate on the driver who really had not seen it coming, wouldn*t the strict liability take its toll due to the fact that circumstances beyond their control must be so unlikely that it was unforseable, and red light jumping is a big enough problem that I doubt that it would have been unforseable. Also, I know that the Netherlands is organized as a unitary system of government, so why aren*t Dutch standards of priority junctions and priority roundabouts enforced on Tilburg and Assen. I know that at least the latter they do not use.
What does the zig-zag painted in the cycle path (in the video at 2:36) mean? In a route like this one, are pedestrians allowed to use it or they have their own space?
A zig zag always means “beware, dangerous situation ahead, lower your speed”. So that must be for something behind the camera since it is on the left side of the road, the approaching traffic, but I don’t remember if there was a junction or a pedestrian crossing with limited vision. Pedestrians always have their own space inside cities and towns (in the built up area) but not always in the country side. This video shows a lot about the country side where they do not have their own space but share the space with cyclists. They would then keep left on the cycle path so they can see approaching cycle traffic. But in the country side you do not see many people walking so it is no problem to share the cycle path.
There are a couple of speed bumps (on the cycle path!) exactly the camera’s position, to slow down cyclists coming from behind the camera. I guess they don’t want cyclists to speed through the junction, even though the cycle path has priority, as the cycle path lies between two houses and visibility from the road is poor.
(For some reason I can’t get a working url from Google Maps; it’s the Stroomdalpad crossing the Baerdijk road in Oisterwijk if you want to have a look.)