The world's first fall-friendly and shock-absorbing bicycle lane is built in Lund in southern Sweden by Massbalans and Peab. The first test lane was constructed on the 13th of July 2020. It is a 300 m long test lane along Dalbyvägen, between Östervångsvägen and Pedellgatan. Lund is already one of the premier ebicycle cities in Sweden and this lane one small step towrdas improving that. The lane will be upgarded during the upcoming weeks in October and replaced with a new version in the spring that is further improved.
The number of serious injuries among cyclists and people walking exceed the number of serious injuries among motorists. The fall-friendly and shock absorbing asphalt will be approxiamately 4-5 times softer compared to normal asphalt. The cirtical fall height (when serious injuries are likely) will increase from 20 cm (normal asphalt) to 85-100 cm for rubber asphalt. Accroing to previous studies the rolling friction will not increase and most cyclists prefer the rubber asphalt feeling when biking. Here is a report from a previous study financed by Vinnova.
The research project is led by RISE and is partially financed by Resource/Energimyndigheten. The parties involved in the project is addition to Lund also Peab Asfalt, Massbalans and Genan, the worlds largest producer of rubber granulate.
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The rubber asphalt contains 11-17 weight percentage (20-30 volume %) rubber granulate of the asphalt mix. Here is a material specification from Genan of the rubber granulate describing the leaching values from rubber granulate (drinking water quality). By reusing rubber in the asphalt we can create a new innovative product and at the same time save some rubber from being incinerated.
Read more about the project here. Do you know any other similar projects around the world made by rubber asphalt or similar products/solutions.