Bicycle highway
Owing to higher average speeds than normal cycling infrastructure, they provide an alternative to the car in commuter traffic.
[1] In the Netherlands the bicycle highway is not defined in the RVV (Dutch: Reglement verkeersregels en verkeerstekens).
In the Netherlands, the following people can use a bike freeway: In Belgium this type of cycle path is not mentioned in the Road Code.
The cost of building a bicycle super highway depends on many things, but is usually between €300.000/km (for a wide dedicated cycle track) and €800.000/km (when complex civil engineering structures are needed).
Both regions use the same signage and signposts made up of a stylised light blue triangle; only the 'F' letter becoming a 'C' in Brussels territory.
The bike freeways within Brussels are connected to the Flemish network and are identified through a number starting with C (for cyclostrade, a neologism compatible with both Dutch and French), going from C1 to C223, the numbers being identical to the Flemish pathways starting with F. Furthermore, in and around the Brussels Region, four circular bike freeways: CR0, CR1, CR2 and CR20 loop around the city.
Ghent is for example connected by bike freeways to almost all neighbouring Flemish cities (Bruges, Deinze, Kortrijk, Roeselare, Oudenaarde, Antwerp,...).
However, many existing towpaths along rivers and canals have also been integrated within this network of bike freeways as they often responded to the minimum requirements with only minor adaptations.
Therefore, the region is not implementing additional bike freeways, even though the RAVeL network is generally also open to pedestrians and sometimes horse riders, and the speed is limited to 30 km/h.
In Denmark there exists a network of long-distance and high-speed cycle paths connecting the suburban areas of Copenhagen with the city core.
There are plans of building 45 routes with a total length of 476 km by 2021 in the cities and municipalities of the Capitol Region of Denmark.
[6] The first Danish route, C99, opened in 2012 between Vesterport railway station in Vesterbro, Copenhagen and Albertslund, a western suburb.
“Service stations” with air pumps are located at regular intervals, and where the route must cross streets, handholds and running boards are provided so cyclists can wait without having to put their feet on the ground.
[8] Additionally, Metropolis GZM is coordinating a project to construct a 120 km long network of bicycle highways (Metropolis GZM bicycle highways [pl]) connecting other cities of the urban area,[9] the construction of the network's first 4,4 km long segment began in 2024.
[13][14] One of the United States' first bicycle freeways is a portion of the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis, Minnesota, completed between 2000 and 2004.
[18] The project called The Loop, will connect 3 million residents to key services and locations within minutes by walking and cycling.
