Scheveningen, NL Case Study: Creating Connectivity for a Recreational Bike Path

Overview

The Scheveningen area along the North Sea, provides valuable assets to the local economy of the Hague by attracting around 16 million visitors per year. Attractive recreational facilities exist along the beach; for example, the Strandweg, a separated bicycle path along the beach strip and the Westduinpark, a sand dune area along the shore. Currently, the Strandweg cycling path to the south of the roundabout ends abruptly at the Buitenhaven, a harbor access route for large ships. Across the harbor to the south is the Westduinpark, a unique natural reserve which provides protected habitat for both plants and animals. With a total area of approximately 245 hectares, this makes it one of the largest green spaces in the Hague. Activities which people engage in at the Westduinpark include bicycling, walking/hiking, horse riding, and enjoying the beach. Linking this natural park with the Scheveningen strip would be important as it would enlarge the recreational area on the beach and would make it easier to get between the two attractions.  Currently, a clear link between Vissershavenweg, a major boulevard perpendicular to the Strandweg, and this sand dune park is missing. Construction of a crossing across the harbor would be one possibility. The other option would be to clarify a bicycle route along the harbor past the multi-modal marina promenade.

Introduction and Scope

Our aim is to create a smooth continuation of the recreational bike path to the south. We are tasked with connecting the path that currently starts at the roundabout on Vissershaven Boulevard around or across the harbor to the other Westduinpark, an expansive sand dune park, on foot on the side of the harbor. The challenge in connecting the Strandweg path to the Westduinpark is that a link would either require construction via a direct crossing, or clearing up a longer route along existing bike routes around the marina with signage and cycling path improvements. The access channel to the port of Scheveningen is utilized by large fishing vessels and tall ships, making it difficult to construct a bike and pedestrian crossing spanning this channel. However, getting around the 80-metre channel via bike path, as opposed to constructing a crossing, would require a detour of approximately 10 minutes by bike.

Impacted Future Developments

The future land use plans of Scheveningen Haven harbour indicate development of ZuidDuin. This development would include both apartment buildings and single family townhouses. The development would be situated in the pink shaded area of the picture below. This development aims to convert part of the harbour into a mixed living area for living, while still maintaining the fishing community. The estimated construction dates are 2018 and beyond. Equipping this development with safe cycling infrastructure is a must.

Options for Development

Option A: Crossing Construction Across Buitenhaven Linking Strandweg end to Westduinpark

Crossing construction from Strandsweg bicycle path to the Westduinpark across the port entrance channel, Boutenhaven, which spans approximately 80 metres (Google Earth, 2016), would be the quickest and most direct way to link both recreational facilities.

Pros

• This option is in line with distance, destination, and direction, three important planning principles to ensure connectivity in a transport network.
• Constructing either a bridge or gondola system would provide a landmark feature for the Scheveningen beach strip, which may attract more locals and tourists to the site and encourage use of the crossing of the north-south connection
• Applying striking architectural design could be done through a pivoting, drawbridge, or a vertical-lift bridge, like Rotterdam’s Old Bridge. This would also enable a comfortable, flat path and views for cyclists;
• A gondola connection might be cheaper to construct with compartments large enough to hold a few bicycles at a time and could attract attention as a unique design solution.

Cons

• A bridge or gondola is costly and time-consuming to construct and maintain;
• For the bridge option, challenges might be faced during planning and construction phases, especially when determining the appropriate kind and dimensions to enable large and tall ships to pass through;
• A gondola connection has rarely been done across waterways, and thus might require more research into structural engineering methods. 

  
  

  Option B: Emphasizing Existing Paths around Buitenhaven Marina from Vissenhavn Boulevard Roundabout to Westduinpark

The second option would consist of emphasizing the existing bike connection from the Strandweg around the whole port to the Westduinpark. Currently, cyclists must resort to taking isolated bike paths to arrive at the park, but as we observed, the route is poorly marked and lacks consistent, safe, and well-defined cycling infrastructure.

Starting from the roundabout that intersects Strandsweg and Vissershavenweg, cyclists must follow a bicycle lane outside of the parking lane. This lane renders cyclists vulnerable, as they must ride between the traffic flow and parked vehicles and face risks such as dooring and side-swipe collisions. In addition, a portion of the cycling route between Schokkersweg through Zeeluisweg and the promenade along Dr. Lelykade is missing. A continuation is blocked by the presence of a stairwell, which deters cyclists. A ramp could be added instead. Beside this missing link, the portion along Schokkersweg lacks a two-way cycle track, where eastbound cyclists must ride on the roadway with cars. Next along the proposed route, cyclists can safely travel along a promenade beside the port’s marina. After the promenade, the cyclists can follow a path of two-way bicycle tracks all the way to the entrance of Westduinpark.

This is a satellite image of the Buitenhaven, with the proposed bicycle route included. The green area on the left is the Westduinpark. The following various colours represent the current states of the route: Blue - A bicycle lane between traffic flow and parallel parking along Vissershavenweg; Yellow – On road cycling eastbound, bicycle lane westbound, turning into a set of stairs; Green – A wide multi-use promenade between Doctor Lelykade road and the marina, and Pink – Two- way bicycle tracks along various roads from the promenade to the Wieringsestraat access to the Westduinpark.

Pros

• This would be a more comprehensive, lower cost, and lower risk option as a major construction project would not be required;
• Improving connectivity around the marina could enhance the tourist attractiveness of a larger area of Scheveningen, especially bringing more visitors to the promenade;
• Cycling improvements would enhance safety and wellbeing of cycle paths and thus, could prevent collision-related injuries that might already occur in this area on a regular basis.

Cons

• This option is less direct for cyclists and would take as much as ten minutes longer to arrive at the Westduinpark through this cycle route than if a bridge or gondola were to be constructed;
• The roadway improvement along this longer cycle route might warrant additional and unexpected costs, in case certain roadways might require larger alterations;
• There are no significant architectural features that could be used to market Scheveningen on a national, regional, or even global scale, compared to a crossing construction approach;

• Since there is no bridge for the residents of the ZuidDuin community, connection to the wrap around bike route would be mandatory. This could be done quite easily, as perhaps the new bike path could go right through the ZuidDuin development.

Criteria for Final Option Evaluation and Selection

Based on our two options, we arrived at our final decision for the plan to link cycling routes in southern Scheveningen beach strip on the following four criteria: direct and indirect (construction and maintenance) cost, safety of cyclist users, access time, and cyclist capacity. We concluded that Option B would likely do better on most accounts. We broke our set of criteria into two categories based on priority:

Criteria

USER PREFERENCE	ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
CONSTRUCTION+MAINTENANCE COST	CONSTRUCTION TIME PERIOD
SAFETY OF ROAD USERS (Cyclists/Pedestrians)	CYCLIST/PEDESTRIAN CAPACITY AND ACCESS

Most important criteria:

1. Construction and maintenance costs for Option B would be lower than option A. Option B would require less construction and more maintenance whereas Option A would require both.
2. Safety of Cyclist users would be ensured through Option B as the longer cycling route does not protect cyclists sufficiently and roadway improvement.
3. Capacity and amount of time to access Westduinpark would be about equal for both options. Although Option A would ensure cyclists could get to the Westduinpark from the Strandweg quickest, this is not the case if ships pass through the Buitenhaven frequently, in the case of a movable bridge. With a gondola, during busy times of year, it could take a while to cross due to limited compartment capacity. Option B is also time-consuming on a predictable basis due to the distance required to cycle around the harbor, but improved roadway should absorb high capacity without significant interruption.

Relevant but less important criteria:

5. architectural features

6. user preference

7. construction time period

Conclusion  

After thorough analysis of the various options already mentioned, we have decided that the rejuvenation and clarification of the Buitenhaven bypass bicycle route would be the best solution. This option entails adding better bicycle infrastructure along sections and cleared signage at all junctions and unclear points along the route.

Scheveningen beach has a very user-friendly and scenic boardwalk with separated walking path, two-way bicycling track, on street diagonal parking and a two-way vehicle access road.

This is the boardwalk along the Scheveningen beach.

Above is the Buitenhaven access channel where a vertical lift bridge or gondola would cross

This is an example of a ship utilising the port in Buitenhaven. This ship is very tall at its highest point and would require high clearance and therefore a high gondola

The first section of the bicycle route around Buitenhaven is currently a hazardous bicycle lane bordering on-street parking.