Traffic Safety for Pedestrians and Cyclists in the Wandsbek-Markt Area

The following map provides an overview of eastern Hamburg, highlighting the magistrals 7 and 11 as well as the bicycle path network. The study area is located exactly at the intersection of these two arterial roads. The magistrals are at the heart of the City of Hamburg's "Masterplan Magistralen 2040+". The goal is to transform the large, often noisy arterial roads into livable and versatile urban spaces. In this context, bike paths are of great importance. In the bike path network shown on the map, a distinction is made between bike lanes (blue), cycle streets (purple) and bike paths (red).
The map shows that Hamburg already has an extensive network of biking routes. In the following section put the quality of the network to a test and identify problems in the area by way of example with the Wandsbek Markt hub.

Critical Analysis

For our analysis we zoomed in and identified a handful of core problems, that lead to less safe bike paths, conflicts between different road users or contribute to an overall hostile cycling experience.
When it comes to the protection from cars, the city already took precautions by building bike paths entirely separated from car lanes. The paths only cross car lanes at intersections, most regulated by traffic lights. Only two instances of turning lanes in the east of the plaza were found to pose a risk. However the grade separation exclusively was realised at the expense of the pedestrian paths.
Cycling paths take up a lot of space on the sidewalks, especially at the intersections. The relationship between cyclists and pedestrians is characterized by conflicts, caused by insufficient signage and marking of the bike paths, or routing of cycle paths. Close encounters, bikers ringing their bells or other conflicts are a regular occurence. Hot spots are traffic lights with high pedestrian volumes and the bus stops along the southern end of the plaza.
The particularly short green phases of the pedestrian lights, sometimes as short as five to ten seconds, contribute to large numbers of pedestrians accumulating at the lights, often blocking the bike paths that run directly past the crossings and leave little to no room to wait.
Finally, a lack of bike storage impacts both cyclists and pedestrians. Cyclists at Wandsbek Markt are inconvenienced and have to deal with a large number of bike thefts in Hamburg, as reported by ADFC. These factors weaken the role of the transit hub, that Wandsbek Markt station is expected to play. Biking as a viable solution for the last mile, especially for commuters, depends on the availability of sufficient and secure storage solutions. A number of bikes is locked along pedestrian walkways, obstructing the paths, existing parking spaces are overcrowded. The secure "Bike+Ride" storage box available at the site meanwhile is almost empty, presumably because of its location, lack of signage and pricing.