06/2019: Buffered cycle lane / Buffered Lanes

In June 2019, the first buffered cycle lane in Aachen was implemented on Roermonder Straße, out of town from house no. 328 to the Schlossparkstraße junction. The buffered cycle lane creates subjective and objective safety through deliberate spacing between moving traffic. A double line is used to mark out an area between the motor vehicle lane and the cycle lane that is not to be used by bicycles or motor vehicles.

In justified exceptional cases, vehicles are permitted to drive over it, e.g. at entrances and exits, to parking lots, in the case of escape routes, in the context of mobility-impaired persons.

The safety space thus freed up increases both the subjective feeling of safety for cyclists on the route and the objective road safety due to the increased horizontal distance between the different types of traffic.

As the buffered cycle lane - like every marking on the roadway - requires an order under road traffic law, this measure served as an example for traffic planning and ordering authorities to implement the buffered cycle lane as a possible standard solution for Aachen for the first time, both in terms of planning and legally.

As there was a material edge in the middle of the cycle lane, which made it uncomfortable for cyclists, the surface was leveled: The asphalt was milled off with a special milling machine in the transition between the concrete gutter and the roadway, so that a uniform and very easy-to-ride-on road surface was created on the cycle lane despite two different surface materials adjoining each other.