Here’s another piece of recently installed crap. It’s the north side of Noorderhaven, which forms part of Groningen’s bizarre inner ring road.
As you can see, there’s plenty of space here – two rows of parked cars! – but no safe space for cycling.
Instead, people cycling are expected to ride between parked and moving motor vehicles, in an advisory painted cycle lane which offers no protection whatsoever.
In a city which claims a 60% modal share for cycling, doesn’t it seem strange that the transport department prioritises the storage of static metal boxes over the safety and convenience of the people using the city’s most popular transport mode?

So there’s space for two lanes of parked cars, but only a narrow painted advisory strip for cycling? This is UK-quality infrastructure in what claims to be one of the world’s top cycling cities. Also, the usable width of the footway is very narrow due to the cars parked on it.

Would you feel happy for your children or your grandparents to cycle here, between the parked cars and the moving traffic?

Nobody should have to cycle this close to large vans, protected only by a white line – especially where there is ample space for a cycleway.
Could there be a good reason for such poor and dangerous infrastructure where there is clearly space for much better?
I just don’t understand why Groningen seems to be building for the 1970s rather than building for the future – or even for the present day.
For those of you interested in such things, this road was reconfigured in August 2015. Previously there were two lanes for motor traffic and nothing at all for cycling. The footways have been widened, but they’re full of parked cars, so there isn’t actually any more space to walk in. The council has essentially created an extra row of parking spaces – strange decision for a “fietsstad”, no?