As reported in February, Irish authorities have been directed to stop using restrictive barriers on walking and cycling routes. But are Dutch “drempels” — a type of inverted speed ramp — a solution?
The text on used on the sign approaching srempels reads: “Drempel — (brom)fietsers, Matig uw snelheid!”, which translates to “Threshold (moped)cyclists, moderate your speed!”
Drempels laren’t discomfortable to cycle across at average cycling speeds.
The design is used mainly to slow mopeds. As an aside: Mopeds restricted to 25km/h are generally allowed on Dutch cycle paths, but speed restrictors are often tampered with. Because of their speed and mass, mopeds are seen as problematic and have been banned recently from cycle paths in central areas in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
The town of Houten is designed in a way where the road network for cars is much more circuitous than the routes for walking and cycling. So, it’s seen as an unlikely proposition to ban mopeds. So, there are far more drempels than you’ll see in most other places.
Cycling over them on bicycles is not that discomfortable.
Would drempels be a good idea instead of restrictive barriers such as kissing gates and chicane gates?
Here’s a few images of drempels, which are made out of larger pre-formed / pre-casted tiles:
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