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Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

nltimes.nl

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Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#21

Post by thorin »

mpclark wrote: post #7

We've had a 20mph limit in towns here in Wales for a couple of weeks now. It seems to be going well where I am; the traffic is noticeably slower during the day (though the people who hoon about at night are still doing it) and the only negative effect I've noticed so far is it might be fractionally harder (as in one has to wait longer) to cross the road at places other than designated crossings, presumably because th…

Sorry just seen your post. Driving from Wrexham to Bala and back on the early hours of Sunday in the rain is probably not a reflective test. There were no changes to road signs that I could see.

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#22

Post by the_gipsy »

userbinator wrote: post #12

There's probably a huge cultural difference here, but the image there sure does not look like a 30km/h street to me --- more like a 30mph one. That said, I've seen pictures of other European streets, far narrower and meandering, where even 30km/h would seem too fast. It is also launching a campaign with the slogan: “We drive 30 for each other.” Not surprisingly, the socialism is blatantly obvious.

Did you mean to say "communism"? "Socialism" has a different connotation in Europe: it often means something softer, like just "social in nature" or "socially just".

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#23

Post by jrockway »

userbinator wrote: post #12

There's probably a huge cultural difference here, but the image there sure does not look like a 30km/h street to me --- more like a 30mph one. That said, I've seen pictures of other European streets, far narrower and meandering, where even 30km/h would seem too fast. It is also launching a campaign with the slogan: “We drive 30 for each other.” Not surprisingly, the socialism is blatantly obvious.

Ultimately the safest ways to prevent traffic deaths are to redesign the street so that drivers don't feel safe exceeding the speed limit. Amsterdam is certainly working on that, but it takes time to rebuild a street. The speed limit is a nice way of saying "if you're paying attention, you can be safer by doing this thing" while waiting for city-wide roadwork to complete.

It's pretty clear to me that automobiles and urban life basically don't coexist. They tragedy of the commons'd every city they touched. A car is great if only you have one, but not so great when everyone has one. This realization is not socialism, but more like rolling back a failed experiment. You can still drive your pickup truck 300 miles per hour on your farm or whatever if you want. Just not through dense cities, where most people are walking or cycling.

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#24

Post by [deleted] »

meheleventyone wrote: post #10
the-dude wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the city will install almost 5,000 new speed signs, adjust 170 traffic lights How is 5000 signs 'slowly' ?

Presumably whilst 5000 sounds like a lot it probably isn’t? Each road impacted needing multiple signs and all that.

[deleted]

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#25

Post by macleginn »

meheleventyone wrote: post #14
mcv wrote: post #4

The title makes it sound like streets in Amsterdam currently don't have a 30 km/h speed limit, and after December, they will all have a 30 km/h speed limit. The reality is that a lot of streets already have a 30 km/h speed limit, and have had them for years. It's been slowly expanding, and clearly will continue to expand even more. There will still be roads with higher speed limits, but their number will shrink. I ex…

They’re doing this in Reykjavik as well which is great, although enforcement is poor so on the larger roads that are now 50km/h everyone is still driving 70km/h as they were when the limit was 60km/h. Going back to the UK where a twisty road through my parents village with tiny pavements was 30mph was pretty shocking with how much more dangerous that felt.

As an aside, speed-limit enforcement in Iceland outside of Reykjavik is almost nonexistent. On the ring road, which goes around the whole country and has a strict but reasonable limit of 90 km/h (few cars but tons of bumps and sudden turns + a lot of low visibility due to bad weather), there are no more than 10 speed cameras, so everybody is driving at their own discretion.

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#26

Post by matsemann »

anonymousDan wrote: post #13
mpclark wrote: post #7

We've had a 20mph limit in towns here in Wales for a couple of weeks now. It seems to be going well where I am; the traffic is noticeably slower during the day (though the people who hoon about at night are still doing it) and the only negative effect I've noticed so far is it might be fractionally harder (as in one has to wait longer) to cross the road at places other than designated crossings, presumably because th…

Yeah I moved a short distance in London to an area that is all 20mph and for me the most noticeable change is the reduction in noise levels (the limits in the previous area were generally 30mph). The new area feels so much more peaceful. It surprised me how much difference a 10mph drop makes.

It's also surprising how much safer that little speed change is for pedestrians/cyclists if they were to get hit.

https://www.nullvisjonen-agder.no/images/grafikk/dodsrisiko-...

Speed in km/h vs death rate. From about 10% death (90% survival) at 30 km/h (~18mph) to about 80% death (only 20% survival!) at 50 km/h (~31 mph)

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#28

Post by kashunstva »

userbinator wrote: post #12

There's probably a huge cultural difference here, but the image there sure does not look like a 30km/h street to me --- more like a 30mph one. That said, I've seen pictures of other European streets, far narrower and meandering, where even 30km/h would seem too fast. It is also launching a campaign with the slogan: “We drive 30 for each other.” Not surprisingly, the socialism is blatantly obvious.

> Not surprisingly, the socialism is blatantly obvious.

It’s a policy on vehicle speeds, one that could be implemented in any political-economic system, or not. I don’t see the connection to social ownership of the means of production.

Re: Amsterdam preparing to lower speed limit to 30 kilometers per hour

#30

Post by matsemann »

KBme wrote: post #5

Yes! This will save at least 3 lives a year! Even one life counts!

Just in the UK it's like 5 road deaths a day or so. A pedestrian being killed by a car every single day. I've also read they've somewhere reduced speeds.

I posted a graph in another comment here about the drastic effects such a small speed change has for survival rate.

This can have a huuuge impact.

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