ANWB – Making cycling safer for the elderly.

CHALLENGE

By 2022, at least 578 traffic accidents in the Netherlands will have resulted in at least one death, up from 522 in 2019. The number of accidents with at least one injured has also risen sharply: in 2019 there were 18,298, in 2022 a whopping 21,455. The e-bike appears to play a larger role and especially among people over 50.

The increase in these accidents has several causes. First of all, that the streets are busier. Several new modes of transportation such as electric scooters and fatbikes are changing the streets. The current design of roads and bike lanes are not optimal for this purpose. Casualties are especially high on local city-roads and rural roads. On the other hand, road users must also adapt to these crowds. Cyclists on e-bikes may not always realize how fast they are going, which can lead to dangerous situations.

ANWB brought in the following challenge during the March 2023 Infra Battle:

“How might we increase road safety for e-cyclists so that the number of accidents decreases and the use of e-bikes on the roads becomes safer?”

SOLUTION

Participants in the three-day Infra Battle worked in multidisciplinary teams on this issue, among others. They came from BAM Infra Netherlands, Het Kadaster, Prorail and the ANWB, among others. Interviews were held with several experts, including from the Cyclists’ Union and the ANWB. Participants also conducted their own research and talked to mobilists. It became clear to them that the main cause was lack of awareness of the dangers. A concept was devised to work on that. The basis was the combination of an app with visual material and a loyalty system, which stimulates learning and makes people share it in their environment.

RESULT

In particular, the Infra Battle is designed to allow participants to experience how Entrepreneurial Design Thinking can be used to create solutions together. In an energetic pressure cooker, they also expand their network and work on their personal qualities. Important lesson that often comes back: “we tend to go to the solution too quickly. If you explore the context better you end up with much better solutions.” A lesson that participants take back to their daily work environment.

Lego Serious Play

"We are used to moving quickly to a solution, when that is often not at all wise...."

- Infra Battle participant

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