Forgiving asphalt for bike- and pedestrian lanes

To achieve climate-, accessibility-, and health goals, a modal shift towards active travel modes is needed. Therefore, bicycle and pedestrian traffic are prioritized modes of transport in most municipalities. However, cyclists and pedestrians' single accidents are a major and increasing traffic safety challenge. According to the philosophy of zero vision, it should be easy to do the right thing in traffic and mistakes should not lead to serious personal injury. This means that roads, streets and vehicles must be adapted and designed according to human conditions and restrictions. In a similar way as e.g. road rails, game fences and 2 + 1 roads reduced the number of dead and injured on the motor traffic side, more infrastructure adaptations for vulnerable road users need to be developed and implemented. One such measure is to make the traffic environment more forgiving, e.g. by shock absorbing pavements with rubber granules. Incorporating rubber granules into asphalt mixtures includes several technical challenges, the largest of which include pre-treatment, processing, paving, working environment, durability and sustainability. The project has addressed these challenges through the development of new types of pretreatments, new methodology for processing that enables conventional paving, reduction of manufacturing temperature for better working environment and development of measurement methodology for asphalt emissions. The project has developed a material with significantly increased shock absorption that can be made commercially available.