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Trial of 12mph bike lane speed limit grinds gears of Dutch cyclists

21 pointsby defrosttoday at 6:21 AM35 commentsview on HN

Comments

pvtmerttoday at 8:19 AM

They need a distinction between pedal assist and fully electric (motor) bike.

I live in Luxembourg and the infrastructure is not as good as the Netherlands. Majority of offenders (in my experience) are delivery guys and teenagers. Where teenagers simply don't care & do reckless things like passing on a big intersection at full speed on a red light, delivery guys do the same things for extra tips.

Some of the fat-tire electric bikes are really fast, I happen to chase them on Kirchberg cycle road. I sustained 40km/h average behind delivery guys and they were still faster, eventually dropping me. (I was on a road bike).

Simply put, anything above 250watts does not belong to cycle lane.Includes humans :j

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huhkerrftoday at 6:57 AM

> “This is all about cyclists on motorised bicycles, so I should think you would do something about motorised cyclists. Make a rule for them and not for all cyclists.”

There's a certain sub strain of cyclists that want absolutely no rules for them.

In a just world, cyclists would have more freedom than cars, but pedestrians would have most of all. But walking through European cities with large cycling cultures can be dangerous, too, especially for children and the elderly. Too often, cyclists will completely ignore stop signs and stop lights, or go at full speed on the sidewalks.

And because I know someone is going to retort that car drivers break traffic laws, too: drivers acting dangerously shouldn't excuse cyclists.

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jmorenoamortoday at 7:39 AM

The boundary between a bicycle and a motorbike has completely dissapeared.

That boundary needs to be recovered, and then rules will make sense again, until then, any effort is futile.

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rXwubXUGAmtoday at 9:23 AM

Not necessarily against the idea but 20kph is very slow. It would be super easy to accidentally go over the limit unless you have a cycling computer attached to the bike and constantly monitor your speed.

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aix1today at 7:10 AM

I find it mind blowing that ~42% of all cycling deaths are men aged 70+.

It obviously confounds fragility with participation but, still, it must mean that people continue to use bikes -- I'm guessing increasingly e-bikes -- well into their old age.

(42% is 118/281 in the report.)

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orbital-decaytoday at 7:26 AM

>Amsterdam and Enschede are banning wide-tyre fat bikes from some central locations or parks

What's the reason? Ordinary fatbikes aren't fast, and e-bikes are fast in any case.

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seper8today at 8:46 AM

They should just limit electric bikes to 15km/h.

If you want to go faster, pedal yourself.

This solves two problems:

- Cool kids aren't cool anymore, biking on their now slow ass fatbikes

- Old people who's mental faculties can't keep up with 25km/h anymore dont end up in so many traffic accidents.

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boesboestoday at 9:15 AM

I cycle at 14mph average on a normal pedal bicycle.. they can fuck right off the with this. We are not all fat fucks on electric scooters pretending to be bicycles

globular-toasttoday at 7:26 AM

12mph seems very slow, but I suppose you can still cycle in the carriageway if you're a decent cyclist?

Really we need to ban motorised vehicles that go above 12mph. They are not bicycles and should not be in cycleways. I feel there is a big difference between someone who is able to pedal at higher speeds and someone who is just using a motor vehicle.

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lifestylegurutoday at 8:15 AM

Cycling culture and infrastructure in Dutch cities is unique. Shame that it's wrecked by assholes who want something bigger and faster, or drive outright electric motorbikes.

paddim8today at 7:24 AM

20 km/h is nothing. On a bike lane you should be allowed to go normal biking speed

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krater23today at 8:40 AM

I life on a big street intersection with traffic lights in a city. Every year I can observe at least one cyclist crash with a car. Mostly because they just ignore the traffic lights completely. As cyclist you learn that traffic rules are not for you, because when you ignore them, normally nothing happens. When you want to safe lives, you need to register bikes and punish cyclists that ignore traffic rules. Otherwise the physics will do it, with much harder punishment.

expedition32today at 9:43 AM

In most countries people use bicycles as some form of leisure travel but Dutch cycling is a need for speed!

Tourist tip if you are ever in Amsterdam: check the ferry next to the train station during rush hour. It is the equivalent of Shibuya crossing only for cyclists. Pure madness but somehow it all works like clockwork.