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Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

theguardian.com

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Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#51

Post by maratc »

buran77 wrote: post #43
maratc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Street bumps are much more efficient in lowering speed than either "automated controls" or "manual controls". You (plus neighbours, probably) could petition your council to put one (or several) on your street.

The elegant way to implement such a speed limit is to have the driver do a "slalom" between things like trees or parking spots set alternatively between the two sides of the street, or green islands in the middle of the street. It forces a low driving speed without the discomfort and potential damage caused by speed bumps. Street bumps are a discomfort even for those who respect the speed limit, and sometimes for res…

I pass three speed bumps on my street every day. I'm driving at low speed, and the bumps are designed so to not create discomfort at these speeds. I don't even brake before them. They only create discomfort to people who drive way above the limit, which is the whole purpose, and the bumps are very effective at that.

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#52

Post by eloisant »

maratc wrote: post #25
idoubtit wrote: post #12

Maybe in Japan it will be effective. Since their "zone 30" creation was apparently a success, it seems probable that people will generally comply. My experience in France differs. I live in a French town where the default speed limit is 30 km/h instead of the national 50 km/h. In the street where I live, the drivers that willingly (sometimes they can't overtake bikes and slow cars) observe that limit are a tiny minor…

Street bumps are much more efficient in lowering speed than either "automated controls" or "manual controls". You (plus neighbours, probably) could petition your council to put one (or several) on your street.

Street bumps are no longer allowed in France. Existing ones can stay, but cities can't create new ones.

Instead they create bottlenecks and turns to force cars to slow down.

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#53

Post by yurishimo »

PJ_Maybe wrote: post #45
Neywiny wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your edit reminds me of some years ago at a conference an American was asking in a boasting way what some European people thought of cybertrucks. I don't know if he owned one or worked on them or just liked them, but he seemed to want some praise on it. They tore into it including how big it was relative to narrow European streets and that they wouldn't be legal to sell in Europe. The guy didn't talk to them after th…

I saw one in Austria for the first time just a couple of weeks ago. It had Polish number plates, so presumably it is legal to buy and register one there, and to drive it in other EU countries.

There are some loopholes that exist for many european countries. The Netherlands has one cybertruck afaik.

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#54

Post by left-struck »

rwmj wrote: post #17
NalNezumi wrote: post #10

The article don't have a good picture of a small road. Here's an example https://kuruma-news.jp/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230214_g... Usually these roads are so small, you can barely fit a car and maybe one pedestrian on one / each side. And these streets are quite common in residential area. As in the picture, usually there are light poles along the pedestrian street. the pictures pole is pretty small but normall…

The really big thing in Japan is you're not allowed to park ("litter") your car in the street. In fact you can't even buy a car unless you can prove you have somewhere on your own land where you can park it. It makes a big improvement to walkability and general attractiveness of neighbourhoods.

There’s a hack though, just put on your hazards and you can park wherever you like!

I’m kidding of course but I see many people do this and it’s super frustrating.

Also fyi, you can buy a kei car without a parking certificate

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#55

Post by boesboes »

kzrdude wrote: post #40
tcp_handshaker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its ironic, because the biggest danger in Amsterdam are cyclists doing well over 60 inside town narrow streets.

You probably mean over 30-40 km/h, not 60.

more like 15-20 km/h

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#56

Post by trgn »

maratc wrote: post #25
idoubtit wrote: post #12

Maybe in Japan it will be effective. Since their "zone 30" creation was apparently a success, it seems probable that people will generally comply. My experience in France differs. I live in a French town where the default speed limit is 30 km/h instead of the national 50 km/h. In the street where I live, the drivers that willingly (sometimes they can't overtake bikes and slow cars) observe that limit are a tiny minor…

Street bumps are much more efficient in lowering speed than either "automated controls" or "manual controls". You (plus neighbours, probably) could petition your council to put one (or several) on your street.

My street has speedbumps since a few years and its been an amqzing improvement

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#57

Post by tcp_handshaker »

kzrdude wrote: post #40
tcp_handshaker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its ironic, because the biggest danger in Amsterdam are cyclists doing well over 60 inside town narrow streets.

You probably mean over 30-40 km/h, not 60.

No I mean up to 60... km/h

https://youtu.be/aEHIqqaPIqI

And you can see here "normal" bikes clocked at 36 Km:

https://youtu.be/FdoViT8-s5I?t=47

you get hit by one of these silent missiles, with an 80kg passenger on it, you spend weeks in hospital...you are older person, its life threatening...

Amsterdam bikes are terrifying :-))

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#58

Post by preisschild »

okr wrote: post #34
mcv wrote: post #29

Halved? So you could go 60 on narrow city streets? In Netherland, the speed limit in cities used to be 50, and even in the 1980s, people were complaining that that was too fast. Most residential streets have been 30 (or less; the street I grew up in had a limit of 5 or 10 km/h) for some time, and Amsterdam recently made it the default for all streets with only exceptions for the biggest thoroughfares. They've also ex…

Machines allow the city to become bigger. Cars are machines. To move stuff. And big machines like buses, trams, subways, planes can move at batch speed. But fail on granularity. I would not say, cars are bad. For me they are the cells that bring the oxygen, to use another analogy. What is missing is organization to avoid clogging. And i dislike the noise and the danger one has. This can be done all better. But i like…

In cities cars have no reason to exist. You can combine better scalable public transit (light rail, subways, trains) with bikes/scooters and you get best of both worlds. Have been living in one for years without a need for a car.

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#59

Post by ShinyLeftPad »

eloisius wrote: post #16
ghere wrote: post #3

The sign of an area run by old people

Not really. Taipei is basically a geriatric colony. You can tell because every year they shut down or limit the hours of nightlife districts, slow the MRT escalators down (more), spend public money on geezer karaoke social hours, etc. But not speed limits. It’s always the senile farts blasting their Mercedes down the street at high speed, losing control and plowing into school kids. There’s absolutely no political wi…

Maji and various bars get limited or shut down because businesses in other areas (esp Xinyi) encourage local residents to file noise complaints to get more business over from competition. The number of open air raves says it's not much of a geriatric colony.

Re: Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

#60

Post by RunSet »

motbus3 wrote: post #20
postepowanieadm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even 30 seems a bit optimistic and 60 is insane.

It is insane that 60 was ever considered a limit :P 20 seems much more than needed

> In traffic, energy used over a specific period of time (power) translates into speed. In this case, the critical quantum will appear as a speed limit. Wherever this limit has been passed, the basic pattern of social degradation by high energy quanta has emerged. Once some public utility went faster than 15 mph, equity declined and the scarcity of both time and space increased. Motorized transportation monopolized traffic and blocked self-powered transit.

>...

> From our limited information it appears that everywhere in the world, after some vehicle broke the speed barrier of 15 mph, time scarcity related to traffic began to grow. After industry had reached this threshold of per capita output, transport made of man a new kind of waif: a being constantly absent from a destination he cannot reach on his own but must attain within the day.

https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1973_energy_equity.html

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