Floating Bicycle Roundabout in Eindhoven - Hovenring

I chose to watch Mark’s videos about the Hovenring in Eindhoven because 1. I’m planning to visit it while I am in the Netherlands and 2. it's a pretty awesome structure. It is a cable stayed circular bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians, or a raised bicycle roundabout as Mark titles it in his video. Underneath the raised ring is traffic signal for vehicles traveling near the highway A2, a north south highway.

A new residential district was built in this area and the desire to create safe routes for families prompted a redesign of this intersection. It was originally a traffic circle but Dutch traffic safety standards required separation of vehicular and active modes. A local design firm came up with a raised circular bridge as the best option. The bridge originally opened in December 2011 but the bridge cables vibrated too much and they had to continue construction until June 2012 when it was reopened. The pylon holding up 24 cables is 70 meters (210 feet) in height and the diameter of the bridge is 72 meters. The total cost of the project was reported at $20 million Euros. (1) 

There are four two-way ramps leading up to the raised bridge which range from 1.86% to 3.09% gradients. (1) The bridge ring operates in both directions for bicyclists and pedestrians. In the videos I saw a cyclist pushing someone in a wheelchair, an elderly woman with a walker, people of all ages cycling, motorized scooters, a man jogging, etc. In one of the videos I also saw motorized scooters on it but I’m not sure if that’s legal. 

At first I thought the intersection underneath was a roundabout because of its shape and because that’s normal in Europe. The right turn lanes have a large radius like a roundabout and the large pole in the middle that holds up the cable stayed bridge could act as the center of the roundabout. After watching the videos I saw the ground mounted traffic signals and watched the cars further I realized that it was signalized intersection. I wondered why they didn’t design a roundabout as they are safer for vehicles and are abundant in Europe. However, roundabouts need the right conditions to operate efficiently so maybe the intersection didn’t meet those guidelines. 

Also, I wonder what the bright red path on the bridge is made out. The first thing I thought of was turf like our running tracks but I couldn’t find anything online that specified the material. I didn’t see any signing on the bicycle bridge either but maybe you can see the signs for vehicular traffic down below well enough to guide you. In one of the videos I did see that there are signs before your start climbing up the ramps. 

At night, the Hovenring is lit up underneath and on sides – judging from pictures it is a beautiful sight! I will update this blog post once I visit the bridge and let you know if the pictures do the bridge justice. I will also inspect the red surface to see if I can figure out what material it is. 



Pictures:
All pictures from: http://hovenring.com/design/
 
Videos:
Hovenring at night, Eindhoven, Netherlands 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozmAUFfQnnI

Floating Bicycle Roundabout in Einhoven, Netherlands 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxN2atgF7tQ

Opening Floating Bicycle Roundabout Eindhoven, Netherland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4334kwLm4o

References:
1. From Mark Wagenburr’s blog: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/spectacular-new-floating-cycle-roundabout/