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Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

amsterdam.nl

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Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#21

Post by thaumasiotes »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #7

The "quieter" aspect is no joke. For the first time in my life, I moved into an apartment near a busy road, the noise is very difficult and I have to wear silicone ear plugs/pillows at night just to sleep because of car noise, especially people with loud motorcycles and trucks and cars that think everyone wants to hear them at 2am. Outside of that over-the-top "flex" noise, just the car noise is fatiguing. One can sa…

> One can say "well, you shouldn't live there" but after I experienced it I realised how much housing is built right by main roads

The road is a primary road because the housing is there. If the road went through the middle of nowhere, it wouldn't be a main road.

Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#22

Post by fnordpiglet »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #7

The "quieter" aspect is no joke. For the first time in my life, I moved into an apartment near a busy road, the noise is very difficult and I have to wear silicone ear plugs/pillows at night just to sleep because of car noise, especially people with loud motorcycles and trucks and cars that think everyone wants to hear them at 2am. Outside of that over-the-top "flex" noise, just the car noise is fatiguing. One can sa…

The loud motorcycle crowd deserve death. I am a pacifist and believe strongly that love and kindness is the natural state of man, but people unwinding their modified bikes down residential streets are just malicious monsters who torture entire neighborhoods for their perverse pleasure. I don’t buy their “to be noticed by cars on the highway” malarkey, since they wind up their motors to earth shattering levels on city roads at every opportunity, rattling windows and setting off car alarms, clearly to gain the notice of everyone sleeping rather than for their own safety.

Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#24

Post by SamBam »

betaby wrote: post #15
ElijahLynn wrote: post #7

The "quieter" aspect is no joke. For the first time in my life, I moved into an apartment near a busy road, the noise is very difficult and I have to wear silicone ear plugs/pillows at night just to sleep because of car noise, especially people with loud motorcycles and trucks and cars that think everyone wants to hear them at 2am. Outside of that over-the-top "flex" noise, just the car noise is fatiguing. One can sa…

That the thing, apartments in US/Canada are in 'trashier' pockets of the city. Single family homes are well located mostly and don't have such problems. Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed. Speaking from my experience in Toronto/Montreal areas. Thus I disagree about traffic noise, it's a necessary evil. Real evil is vast zones of single family areas in the city li…

> Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed.

I'm confused by this statement. In any older city in the US, like in any city in Europe, the heart of the city is apartment buildings. Those would have been the main part of the city by the time it was big enough to be called a "city." Single family homes were generally in later areas -- suburbs, or suburbs that got swallowed up by the city -- or in the small exclusive pockets of extremely wealthy areas.

Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#25

Post by gotoeleven »

virtue3 wrote: post #10
Tomis02 wrote: post #5

That's amazing. Meanwhile, in some other first world countries (allegedly): "come on bro, just one more lane, and increase the speed limit, that'll definitely fix traffic and make everything better".

Yeah it's a known thing now that widening highways / adding more throughput does not ease congestion etc. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/widen-highways-traffic... .

[flagged]

Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#27

Post by truculent »

betaby wrote: post #15
ElijahLynn wrote: post #7

The "quieter" aspect is no joke. For the first time in my life, I moved into an apartment near a busy road, the noise is very difficult and I have to wear silicone ear plugs/pillows at night just to sleep because of car noise, especially people with loud motorcycles and trucks and cars that think everyone wants to hear them at 2am. Outside of that over-the-top "flex" noise, just the car noise is fatiguing. One can sa…

That the thing, apartments in US/Canada are in 'trashier' pockets of the city. Single family homes are well located mostly and don't have such problems. Reason is simply - apartments were put there they are well after city was fully developed. Speaking from my experience in Toronto/Montreal areas. Thus I disagree about traffic noise, it's a necessary evil. Real evil is vast zones of single family areas in the city li…

What do you make of the switch to 30kmph with respect to “necessary evil”? It seems like Amsterdam has decided it isn’t necessary at all, for the reasons stated in the article

Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#28

Post by dbg31415 »

That’s crazy slow! I can’t even begin to think of how long it would take to get anywhere.

By comparison, “The Texas Transportation Commission is allowed to bump up the speed limit in certain sections to 75, 80 and 85 mph, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. The speed limit can be raised if the highway is deemed safe and reasonable..”

Also.. you can typically avoid a ticket by arguing you were still driving at “reasonable and prudent” speeds as long as you don’t exceed the posted limit by more than 24 miles per hour.

Or just donate to your local police department..

Re: Amsterdam Switches to 30 Km/h on 80% of its Roads

#30

Post by remh »

zwieback wrote: post #11

That's 18.6 mph, slower than the speed limit around US schools. Is the expectation people will go 20 or 25 mph (32 to 40 km/h) in reality?

People in Amsterdam use km/h not mph. From my experience in france, on 30km/h roads, people would drive anywhere between 30-40km/h, while on 50km/h roads, people would drive between 50 and 55km/h.
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