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

amsterdam.nl

41–50 of 202 posts

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

#41

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 d…

Texas has vast empty areas, comparing it to Amsterdam is really apples to oranges.

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

#42
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

The fuck are you going on about? You think everyone driving is ever going to be sustainable?

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

#43

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?

That is also the speed of an elite runner. So even getting hit by a car at that speed is bad news.

Bad news, but obviously better than 50. And

> The probability of a pedestrian surviving an accident in which the car was moving at 30km/h is 95%

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

#44

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…

[deleted]

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

#45

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?

I think the expectation is that they will eventually traffic calm the streets until people really go 30km/h. (Or speed a little, probably not 40 km/h.)

FWIW, 20mph school zones seem to be becoming more common in the US.

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

#46
So many comments in here using the context of US cities and missed that Amsterdam (like most big european cities) is not designed for high throughput car transportation and as a result painting that decision as making things "crazy slow" and that it "sounds terrible".

I highly encourage you to go live a week in a big old european city (Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid) without renting a car to understand why it's not a crazy decision and how it can make the life of the residents so much better.

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

#47
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the expectation is that the government can put up speed cameras everywhere and make a shit ton of money.

i'm pretty sure that's only a legit business model in the usa

Oh let me tell you about a speed camera on Parkside drive in Toronto that makes city literal millions every year.

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

#48

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 d…

> I can’t even begin to think of how long it would take to get anywhere.

Amsterdam is laid out quite differently from any place in Texas…

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

#49

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…

Definitely one aspect of Vietnam/SE Asia that I don't miss. Whole country is based on honking motorbikes 24/7.

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

#50
post #10
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... .

Yes, it really does. Traffic engineering is an entire field of civil engineering. This has been studied for over a century, and the effect of widening highways and increasing speed limits can be simulated mathematically:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_engineering_(transport... [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01912...

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