© Roelof Kleis
The little unlit road is already a busy path that cyclists take when travelling to or from campus. In the new plans, the narrow path will become a several-metres-wide bicycle highway that finds its eastern end on the Grintweg. The last few hundred metres of the path are still missing and will have to be laid right across the existing pastures.
Shopping street
A number of things can be read in the Snelle Fietsroute Ede-Wageningen (‘Fast Bicycle Route Ede-Wageningen’) plan. On Monday evening in Orion, the plan was presented to the local residents and interested people. The bicycle route will become the main cycling connection between the city centres of Ede and Wageningen. The route starts at railway station Ede-Wageningen. From there, it follows the Edeseweg, the Dorpsstraat in Bennekom (shopping street), and then continues straight – along the Bovenweg and Grintweg – to Wageningen.
The route crosses the Mansholtlaan next to restaurant ‘t Gesprek and, passing Hoevestein and the Churchillweg, enters the Wageningen city centre. The route follows wide, separated bicycle paths or streets where cyclists prevail. This means that within Wageningen, the Grintweg and the Churchillweg will become bicycle streets, where automobiles are allowed, but where the speed limit is set to 30 km/h. The Grintweg will thus lose its function of thoroughfare.
Alternatives
The suggested route is the preferred route, as it was agreed upon between the boards of the municipalities of Wageningen and Ede, the province, the Dutch Cyclists’ Union and WUR. Alternative routes have been investigated, but were eventually dropped. There are mainly alternatives in Bennekom to avoid the busy town centre. Nevertheless, the route through the centre appears to be the most direct and is currently used as such.
Test fields
Other alternatives stumbled upon a ‘no’ from WUR, that refuses to cooperate with routes that pass straight through the test fields in the Binnenveld and near Bennekom. The preferred route also has a few points of congestion. The crossing of the Mansholtlaan, next to restaurant ‘t Gesprek, is an important one, and bicycle tunnel might be necessary there. The same goes for the branch toward campus, which also requires crossing the Mansholtlaan.
The execution of both crossings is closely linked to the laying of the new ring road around campus. That road should lead to a significant decrease of traffic on the Mansholtlaan.