The City of Bern in Switzerland transformed a major intersection into a “protected intersection” inspired by Dutch design to boost safety and appeal for pedestrians and cyclists. Following this success, they’ve engaged Mobycon for an exciting project to create innovative cycle path designs for a high-traffic area, with multiple options presented in late 2022 for the city to choose from.
In 2020, the Traffic Planning Department of the Directorate of Civil Engineering, Transport and Green Spaces of the City of Bern (Switzerland) commissioned Mobycon to conduct a preliminary study investigating the design of an intersection as a “protected intersection” based on the Dutch model. The goal was to make one of the city’s most important intersections more attractive and safer for pedestrians and cyclists. This project was completed in mid-2022 and turned over to the City of Bern for implementation.
As a result of this successfully completed project, the City of Bern engaged Mobycon for a follow-up project. This includes the preparation of various ideation sketches of how a cycle path can be designed across the Bahnhofplatz and its surrounding area. The project area experiences high traffic volumes of all kinds. The goal is to find a solution that takes into account public transport, active transportation – i.e. pedestrian and cycle traffic – as well as private transport, and allows them to co-exist harmoniously.
At the end of 2022, four different sketches were created, representing three variants of bi-directional cycle lanes (located on the right, on the left and in the middle of the road) and one variant with uni-directional bike lanes located on the right and on the left of motorized traffic. These have been summarized in a report and presented to the City of Bern for review and decide which variant is preferred.