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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

#61

Post by vincnetas »

svelle wrote: post #39
vincnetas wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact. In Lithuania there was a standat speed limit 60km/h. But we have this curiosity that if you exceed speed limit by less than 10km/h, there is no fine, just a warning. Basically "hey, could you please not" Because of that de facto speed limit in streets was 70km/h. So to combat this, currently we have speed limit 50km/h in cities, which translates to de facto 60km/h

It's been the same in Germany. Literally everyone drives over the speed limit all of the time. 30km/h is somewhat stuck to when it's near a school but everywhere else people just drive faster because the fines were ridiculously low for the longest time.

Meantime in Sweden +8kmh gets you 100€+ fine and a free lecture how speeding kills people.

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

#62

Post by root-parent »

sigilis wrote: post #42
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.

In my experience, cyclists travel from 15-25 in the city. Very rare to find someone going 60. Even motorcycles don’t usually go that fast. There’s a lot of people on the streets of Amsterdam. The biggest danger here is not terribly clear. Somewhere in the intersection of people cluelessly walking into the bike lane and bicyclists hitting the clueless.

>> Somewhere in the intersection of people cluelessly walking into the bike lane and bicyclists hitting the clueless.

Looks like bicyclists are the clueless...bordering on criminal:

https://youtu.be/u10OCGJH0Lg?t=3

https://youtu.be/P0bZFkPtu4M?t=3

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

#63

Post by verytrivial »

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…

I'm a busybody. I have bought radar guns from eBay. I have lightly shamed the local authorities with data. There are now more physical speed controls (more signs, speed bumps, one way roads) in my local area. Perhaps my nagging helped. I like to think it did. Start chipping away at it. If not you, then who?

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

#64

Post by yread »

tcp_handshaker wrote: post #57
kzrdude wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :-))

WTF how does she measure 36km/h on the leisurely cycling people? And how does she measure the 28km/h guy when being so far from the direction he's travelling?

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

#65

Post by maratc »

eloisant wrote: post #52
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.

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.

You are likely referring to prefabricated rubber speed bumps, outlawed because the material becomes very slippery when wet, endangering motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles.

Asphalt and concrete street bumps seem to be legal in 30 km/h zones.

Here's an offer from Citroen which is free and "open to all 34000 French mayors via an online form": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-AI70ImUgE

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

#66

Post by mysterydip »

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…

Back in the early 00s my host family had an imported left hand drive chevy blazer, and it felt enormous there. I can only imagine in the years since how ridiculous it would be with ballooning SUV sizes.

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

#67

Post by mysterydip »

preisschild wrote: post #58
okr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree overall, with the caveat that it really depends on the infrastructure available and sprawl. I had flown in to a city late at night, and all the subways and busses had stopped for the night. My only option was a taxi or stay at the airport.

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

#68

Post by piva00 »

tcp_handshaker wrote: post #57
kzrdude wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :-))

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

These bikes are not going at 36 km/h, whatever device she is using to measure it is incorrectly calibrated or simply not made to measure people on bikes.

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

#69

Post by alserio »

rwmj wrote: post #21
PunchyHamster wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that might be news to you but those people don't give a shit about speed limits

Arrest them, take away their cars. Repeat until they do "give a shit".

How many kids will be isekai'd in the process?

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

#70

Post by skhr0680 »

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…

If there is no posted speed limit then the default is (was) 60. Now narrow roads have a default of 30.

In my area, I can’t think of a an example of a road that would be affected by this law change that didn’t already have a 30 km/h posted speed limit.

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