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Amsterdam to give car traffic less priority as streets and sidewalks fill up (nltimes.nl)

submitted 1 year ago by agrammatic@feddit.de to c/citylife

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Some interesting points:

That may mean that Amsterdam residents will have to “wait a little longer” during rush hour, motorists may spend longer at red lights, and locals may have to accept that same-day delivery is a thing of the past.

Cyclists will also have to adapt. Next year, the city will introduce streets where faster cyclists, often on e-bikes and fatbikes, can choose between the motorway or the bike path. Those who choose the bike path must adhere to a speed limit of 20 kilometers per hour.

For a city moving in the opposite direction: Change to the mobility law - Berlin CDU wants to abolish priority for cyclists

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[–] admiralteal@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They're the Dutch, so there probably is going to be little active enforcement. Because bike riders and car drivers are not a different species of animal and sound, effective methodology to traffic enforcement is the same for both.

They'll just design bike paths that make you feel uncomfortable if you are going significantly beyond those speeds in areas where it is important to keep people to those speeds. They'll signal with clear design what speeds you should be going.

Relying on enforcement for traffic rules is not an effective strategy. Engineering is the only thing that really works -- and the Netherlands is the case study proving that point.

Though personally, the evidence suggests it is below about 20mph/30kmh where the risk of serious injury drops off in a collision. I wish they'd be targeting 25 or even 30 as the max speed instead of 20. 20kmh/10mph is a speed a non-ebike operated by a reasonably fit person can be moving.

[–] Thelsim 1 points 1 year ago

I doubt they're going to introduce a lot of new infrastructure from the beginning. It's probably going to be signs and new regulations at first. Like when they restricted mopeds from using the bicycle lanes.
Maybe I'm mistaken though. I'm not a resident, I just work in Amsterdam.

The problem about speeds is not so much how serious an injury you get when you have a collision, but more how much damage you cause to others. Especially during rush hour, the lanes can be crowded with people going to work, kids going to school, etc.
As long as everyone cycles at about the same speed, it's not that much of a problem. But those bigger e-bikes are way faster (and heavier) and can cause quite a bit of damage when they hit someone. Preferably they should create separate lanes for faster cyclists instead of forcing them on the motorways.

Anyway, if you're interested I did a quick search about the problem and got you a translated link to a recent article about the problems.