Let's design roundabouts for cyclists so that they're both safe and convenient 

If there are lots of cars then a roundabout is not appropriate. Should be replaced with a traffic light junction which will be safer for all users including cyclists.

It's not Assen design, it's general practice. In most of the country, except a few places like Assen, inside the built-up area the cyclists have priority and outside the built-up area not. It works just fine. But this would not be a good situation inside the built-up area to have two-way priority, so that's why it doesn't work too well as shown. Two way priority roundabouts for cyclists are tricky things to navigate for cars anyhow, it needs a very clear view and very low speeds. And still it's not ideal, but in some places the best we presently got.

It only "works jut fine" if you think that a heightened risk to cyclists is a good outcome. 's-Hertogenbosch is an interesting example as the risk of a crash on the roundabouts of that city, adjusted for population size, is six times so high as the risk in Assen, and there have been 34 injuries at the roundabouts of 's-Hertogenbosch over the same period as there were none at all in Assen (it's impossible to adjust for population size with 34 vs. 0, but the population is 2.5 times the size of Assen.) What's more, the very most dangerous places in 's-Hertogenbosch are roundabouts with priority. Read more here: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/safe%20roundabouts www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2015/08/the-most-dangerous-junction-in-assen.html#denbosch

David Hembrow I meant roundabouts like this one: Unnamed Road Unnamed Road, Rosmalen, Netherlands goo.gl/maps/UFbWW3QMmKB2

An interesting example which, as you said, uses the shape of the safe roundabout but gives cyclists priority. Taking a look at the map (linked from the blog post) reveals that between 2014 and 2017 that roundabout had three crashes in total, one of which caused an injury. It's far from the worst priority roundabout in the area, but it's a sample of one. Both the shape and the priority are important. I think using that shape will still be beneficial with priority because the sight-lines are better. There's also a good size refuge on most arms of that roundabout and that enhances safety because cyclists can stop safely between flows of traffic should they need to.

David Hembrow It is close to the motorway. Problem is that its not a very large sample size.

Giving cyclists priority around the perimeter was proven to dangerous many years ago in the UK and it's not become safer since then with the higher levels of traffic that exist now. Copying the priority design is an extremely bad idea in Britain. Very many British roundabouts, perhaps the majority, are in locations which have such heavy traffic that the Dutch would either have built a traffic light junction at that location or would have diverted the through motor traffic elsewhere. Anywhere that you have multiple lanes entering, leaving or on the roundabout is a very long way past the level that cycling can be made safe even with the best roundabout design described here: www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2014/05/the-best-roundabout-design-for-cyclists.html

David Hembrow I agree wholeheartedly. Exactly the point I was making. I complained about the implementation of perimeter cycle lane on an extremely busy circle of death and was told by my local authority, Hull, that it was planned by experts. I asked experts in what? earth.app.goo.gl/nQq6f They are not interested.

Indeed. That will make it even more dangerous. The single direction with priority design already causes 20x as many injuries as the design used in the second half of the video. Dutch standards suggest bidirectional paths with priority should never be used around roundabouts because its not considered to be safe by those who think the 20x worse design is OK.

@@DavidHembrow Do they allow it if the bi-directional cycle path crossings use traffic lights?

@@ElectricityTaster Safety for cyclists may well be improved by adding traffic lights if they can be relied upon to stop the cars, however a junction which has traffic lights to control the cars is not really a roundabout any more. I've other videos about traffic light designs which work well for cyclists: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ibLGtZ-uWQ0.html

Rocc Pro No-one thinks that's safe and no-one recommends it. It requires drivers o look in both directions at once to check for bikes.

@David Hembrow: Agreed. That's only an option for very slow roundabouts with little car traffic.

I don't agree with that. The injury rates from "priority" roundabouts are much too high. They're also much slower to cross than the non priority type. I prefer to be able to keep my speed up and the "priority" roundabouts slow me down too much. www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/safe%20roundabouts