Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Streetsblog

Where Traffic Signals Automatically Give Cyclists Priority

If you're walking to a signalized intersection in the United States, there's a good chance if you don't push a button, you're not getting a signal to cross.

That cars-first approach can get to seem like the natural order of things. But it doesn't have to be that way. In the Dutch city of Assen, the situation is reversed at some traffic lights -- cars must wait, while bicyclists are given priority. David Hembrow at A View from the Cycle Path explains:

Assen has 28 sets of traffic lights. Three of them are set up in such a way that they default to green for cyclists. i.e. their usual situation is showing a green light for cyclists and they will only switch to red for cyclists and green for motor vehicles a sensor leading to the junction is triggered by the motor vehicle.

The junction featured in this blog post [and above video] is one of two very close together on a secondary cycle route in an industrial area in the west of Assen which give priority to bikes.

Hembrow says even though this is an industrial area far from the center of town, the Dutch know that all portions of the city have to be safe and convenient for cycling if that's going to be a viable transportation option for most people. These lights help encourage cycling even for long distances and out-of-the-way places.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 reminds readers that every decision we make as drivers can have enormous consequences for the lives of children. The Active Pursuit reports that a pretty solid "vulnerable road users" law seems to be on its way to passage in the Wisconsin Statehouse. And Beyond DC laments the loss of DC planning chief Harriet Tregoning, who's moving on to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Thursday’s Headlines: Tisch Comes Clean Edition

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch finally commented on her department's crackdown on cyclists. Plus more news.

May 15, 2025

Tisch Rap: NYPD Criminal E-bike Summonses Surge 4,000 Percent

The NYPD wrote twice as many criminal court summonses to e-bike riders in two weeks than it wrote all of last year — an astronomical increase that is a remnant of a repudiated racially biased police practice.

May 15, 2025

Quiet Desperation: NYPD’s Tisch Didn’t Tell DOT About Her Crackdown on Cycling

The NYPD commissioner did not inform her counterpart at the Department of Transportation that police would begin issuing criminal summonses to cyclists.

May 15, 2025

Not the Same Ol’ MTA: Cost of Upgrading Subway Signals is Cut in Half

A new design-build strategy, plus removing old signals fully, is credited for cutting costs in half. Take that, Sean Duffy.

May 15, 2025

Lander, Labor Activists Slam Cuomo After ‘Goliath’ DoorDash Gives $1M

The donation from the the app company is seen as a way of influencing a possible future mayor to side with the tech giant.

May 14, 2025
See all posts