EACH MEMBER DO: Your favourite and why? – of these 20 points of interest, which struck you the most 

From all 20 points of interests, the one which struck me as particularly effective was point 11B, the protected intersection General Spoorlaan at Steenvoordelaan, Rijswijk. The idea of a protected intersection interested me, on how it operated and serviced safety to all of its users of the intersection. In the centre of the intersection, between the vehicle lanes, there’s a tram line which runs on its own line. Separate lights chime for different vehicles of transportation. With lights for specific vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, it shows how clearly delineated each entity was, and how separation is key in Delft (as explained by Jan Nederveen in his lecture). Separate crosswalks isolated for pedestrians and cyclists, it guarantees a sense of separation and safety between the two parties, minimizing the percentage of accidents to occur between the two.  As for the vehicle lanes, only two lanes are present for both directions. With these aspects, vehicles are much more aware of their surroundings due to the amount of traffic shared between cyclists, pedestrians, trams, and vehicles.

From these concepts and aspects of the protected intersection, I felt that it was particularly effective in serving its purpose for being a safe intersection. Additionally, I believe that this concept could be applied back home in Canada. Back home, although we don’t have the sheer numerous amount of cyclists, we have quite a large and decent-sized number of people cycling along the roads, whom often experience accidents. By applying these concepts back home, they can help minimize the number of accidents which occur between drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. Although direct change can’t occur immediately, the idea of delineating a separate bike lane at pedestrian crosswalks could be a start towards change. For example in Vancouver, bicycle lanes are prevalent and exist along most large streets, most intersections and crosswalks lack bicycle lanes for them to cross, but instead combine with the pedestrian crosswalk. In order to minimize such accidents and guarantee safety for both parties, small steps and concepts from a protected intersection at Delft can be implemented back home, such as a bicycle crosswalk lane at intersections.