Have you seen this logo?

The pilot project "Fietssnelwegen" is a part of the CHIPS project work package on readability. The objective of the CHIPS (Cycle Highways Innovation for smarter People Transport and Spatial Planning) project is to develop cycle highways as a mobility product with a strong focus on its identity as part of a network (as opposed to clear identity for the route itself).

Together, the five Flemish provinces are strongly committed to the creation of a network of cycle highways with attention to the readability and branding of the routes. Because, before you use a cycle highway, you have to love it and before you can love it, you have to know about it ... and be able to see it.

The Flemish provinces developed together an itinerary language consisting of a logo, a route column, signage and a unique numbering for each cycle highway. This route language will make the 110 bike highways (2400 kilometers in total) in Flanders more readable.

A cycle highway is ‘readable’ if a specified user at every moment and on every part of the cycle highway is capable to intuitively recognize and use the cycle highway to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. Well thought-out infrastructure and elaborated non-infrastructural elements focusing on identity and guidance are the foundation for a readable cycle highway.

Clarification:

• “A specified user at every moment”: this can also be a potential user who understands the cycle highway as a mobility product and considers to use it.
• “capable to intuitively recognize the cycle highway”: this can be the case even when the cycle highway infrastructure is not self-explaining and/or of a high quality.

Want to know more about bicycle highways and the new logo? See the animation on YouTube and check out the photo shoot.

The province of Flemish Brabant is testing the logo and signage on the cycle highway Leuven-Brussels, the F3. You can find the pilot project (2 kilometers) between the bicycle bridge over the Bijlokstraat in Herent and the Colonel Begaultlaan in Leuven.

Test the pilot project now and share your experience through www.fietssnelwegen.be