Alrighty,
So your system knows the exact situation and still is slowing down my bike, just at the moment I need to accelerate to avoid being overrun by that large truck heading into me.
How stupid are these folks? We’ve got rules, when people don’t follow those rules, you fine them. Case closed.
No system to prevent a bike speeding, teach people to obey the law.
The usual “too many people are getting hit by cars while on bicycles, obviously it’s the bicycles that are the problem”
If ebikes that go over 25kmh are already illegal, why would those ebikes have this speed limiter module installed?
Why are ebikes are not allowed to go fast enough to just ride on the road with cars, making it much safer for pedestrians and for the ebikes?
According to Paul Timmer of the Townmaking Institute, getting the device working on all e-bikes should be pretty straightforward. “There are five manufacturers and suppliers of motors for electric bicycles. They all work with similar systems,”
Also completely false, are they going to make it illegal to buy ebikes that don’t come with those 5 drive systems from large corporations, and shut out the small businesses that make ebike motors?
The article also describes this working on lower speed limits like close to schools or when approaching worksites. I can’t see why this is not a good idea
I can’t see why this is not a good idea
I believe the argument here is that it’s security theater, i.e it looks positive but in practice has literally no effect. To clarify if people buy a “normal” e-bike today, they are already speed limited. Consequently people who have bike going faster that said limit are doing something already beyond the ordinary. The likelihood that such people would suddenly change their behavior to buy typical bikes when they have even more restrictions is probably not high, but the announcement still makes it look like something is done for the greater good.
The way i see it, its an area that is in the process of becoming regulated. The article mentions
More than half of all electric cyclists ride faster than the permitted 25 kilometers
This can’t be the case if they are speed limited
My bad I didn’t see that proportion thanks for clarifying. As more than half are already going over the speed limit then there is indeed a more systemic problem. I thought it was about say 10% fringe that go with heavily modified bikes. I’m not sure more tech would help though, rather than fines with explanation of the risk until people do start respecting the limit. If people are unable to respect that and it causes more accidents, then yes ISA on e-bikes, cars, everything causing accident on the road.
Lol imagine you are trying to go max speed to not get robbed, they see you are going too fast and slow you down. Then the robber catches up and robs you lol
No, it’s more to limit speed on some streets, when you have a 60lbs ebike with a 180lbs guy on it going over 60mph in a busy street downtown, it’s fucking dangerous.
- AFAIK 60km/h let alone 60mph e-bikes aren’t road legal in the Netherlands. 60mph is something like 95km/h. To give you an idea, most motorways are 100km/h in the Netherlands. To drive something that fast you’d need a full motorcycle license, insurance, etc.
- Certainly they’re not allowed on cycle paths.
- Even if they were, Amsterdam has a citywide speed limit of 30km/h. That’s under 20mp/h.
But more importantly, e-bikes are supposed to have a speed limiter set to 25km/h anyway.
Supposed, like 49.9cm3 should be limited
Good point I had no idea those went that fast. This does sound difficult to police, I assume they dont need insurance for those either?
They are not going that fast. Don’t know where those numbers are from… ebikes are limited to 25km/h to be considered a bicycle.
I’m sorry but could you repeat that with measurements that aren’t straight out of the 14th century?
Perhaps washing machines or football fields?
That’s like a third of a washing machine with a washing machine on top of it traveling at 880 football fields an hour!
In addition to what everyone else is saying, any e vehicle able to go that fast weighs more than 60 pounds. You use a random number generator for this post?
Is this the same system they use to slow down basically everything at AMS? Like seriously, that’s the worst, dirtiest major international airport I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to use.
to avoid being overrun by that large truck heading into me
lol, I’m guessing you’ve never ridden a bike in Amsterdam
You got me there… :-)
I live in Canada and seeing so many people riding around without helmets in Amsterdam felt weird until I realized how protected the cyclists are by the design of the road infrastructure. Cycling while sharing the road with a truck with no barrier in-between is common where I live so I appreciate your perspective.
Also ebike speed is lower and closer to actual bike speeds in the EU which may play a role in head injuries.
I was driving a rental scooter last summer and the thing just suddenly stopped in the middle of traffic. It had randomly decided that I was on a sidewalk when I absolutely was not. It was both an embarrassing and a scary situation.
Dude, that sucks. I can picture the walk of shame. They really shouldn’t do shit like that.
Should’ve just left it in the road and walked off lol. It’s the company’s problem now… Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
That’s literally what people are already doing and that’s why rental scooters are getting banned in many cities; they just leave them laying around where they shouldn’t and it’s a massive nuisance to everyone.
It’s gonma destroy somebody’s car tho
I give this two weeks until a hacker bricks every ebike on their network.
Exactly this. Foolish ideas from someone behind a desk.
Nerds and hackers will win this easily.
Nerds and hackers will also win any battle in removing top speed limitations. The issue we’re having right now is that non-techies also have easy access to 60 km/h death machines because they can just buy Chinesium fatbikes with 1kW motors and a preinstalled throttle.
If they start requiring helmets you’ll see this fad die down real quick. As it’s mostly children (or uncivilized adults) buying these to look cool and cause trouble.
Good! Back to the situation of “I need to use the strength of my legs to accelerate”, much safer
-Guy who has no interest in seeing cars largely replaced with bikes in cities
ummm, what?
E-bikes can replace cars in far more situations than regular bicycles can.
Okay, but would you stop calling me a “guy who (said something that you think he could say)”?
Sure, as soon as you stop hating on e-bikes
The obsession with scooter and bike speeds that don’t have the mass to seriously hurt people at top speed is crazy.
Like you can find videos of people being hit at top speed by scooters/bikes, usually the pedestrian is pretty fine but rightfully annoyed. Every fatal accident I can find is the escooter/ebiker was hit by a car.
Fingers crossed they stop being dumb and just make actual infrastructure for micromobility so they don’t have to compete with giant murder machines.
Searching for scooter and pedestrian brings up plenty of results, just gotta disclude vehicles from the pool of results.
Ahh, that was from an event 2022, probably also part of why I missed it, also I was looking in US last time I looked for statistics. Any chance finding statistics for like 2023?
I think also helpful to remember that many have died just from being punched and their head hitting the pavement. If a bike knocks someone over there’s always the potential for serious injury, especially for older folks.
With a usual bike, I mostly agree. But there are beasts like that now, they are heavier than a bike and even heavier han average scooter, and from the looks, they are mostly owned by a-holes. And not just from the looks, but from the fact that they remove facrory limit of 25 km/h
I know, it’s just bikes like the one in my link - there are many of them, and they’re in a city. I don’t care much if somebody rides in a forest on an electric dirtbike and thinks it’s a bicycle :)
You know what? Yeah you’re right, that’s just a motorcycle with pedals and probably could do a lot of force if it hits a pedestrian and probably should just be treated like a motorcycle.
I have a cutesy little escooter that I feel like has a better chance of harming someone by picking it up and using it as a blunt weapon than trying to run them over at 15 mph. Make no mistake, riding on sidewalks is still super dangerous and shouldn’t be done if there is any chance of a pedestrian, but you’d think they would just build proper infrastructure instead of limit them. If they had a bike lane with passing space, they could be as beastly as they want while passing me.
I watched something very similar to this hit at least 40mph (~65kph) down my 30mph (~50kph) limit road the other day. The guy did not have a helmet on and was in a light jacket and jeans with trainers.
It was as you said, a motorcycle with pedals - only ridden by more of an idiot than the people who ride around during summer on 600cc bikes wearing shorts and t-shirts (cause at least they have a crash helmet on)
actual infrastructure for micromobility
Right, because Amsterdam, as we all know, is such a shithole in that regard.
You’re the obsessed one in this case.
In my town people have died from being run into with 25 kmh rental e-scooters (eg. Voi) so they definitely have enough mass and speed to both seriously injure and kill people. I can only imagine the damage that is caused by these high speed fatbikes I see people riding on bikepaths now.
Ha! Do it for cars first
As a conservative it warms my heart to see so many people in this thread responding with indignation to government intrusion.
Being a pedestrian in Amsterdam can be pretty bad. Dutch on bikes are insane. No slowing down is allowed. The bike might be rigged like the bus in Speed or whatever. Ready to explode.
People on heavy e-bikes are riding 25km/h over pedestrian crossings with poor visibility.
It is dangerous, and should be treated as such.
Cars in Amsterdam is a much smaller consern than bikes. Really.
Been there. Beautiful city. Terrible biking culture. The Dutch know. They reference it occasionally.
The biking culture in Amsterdam is fine. The problem is tourists standing on the seperate bicycle lanes - colored red, with pictures of bicycles on them - and thinking that they are being assaulted when a cyclist rings their bell to wake them out of their cannabis-induced stupor so they can get to work.
Fat bicycles modified to go faster than 25 km used to be a problem, but they get stolen so quickly now it’s less of an issue. 😆
The more complicated question is whether cities actually want to implement the system and can convince e-bike riders to use it, he said.
Convince? So it’s volunteer.
Now do cars!
Apparently starting ISA in July 2024 https://www.brusselstimes.com/855280/self-braking-cars-all-new-cars-to-be-fitted-with-speed-limiting-technology
The technology to do it has existed for probably almost a hundred years at this point, but it was never implemented because of public pushback.
We’ve got that here. You jam a stick in the spokes, then throw the bike and the rider in the canal. Lots of fun.
People need to start registering and insuring bikes and bikes used in public just like cars in my opinion.
Have them use their own license plates and everything.
If you get three fines for going too fast on your bike let it get confiscated for a few weeks/months.
Includes kids then right?
Sure thing, have the parents register the bikes when they buy them. If the kids aren’t responsible the parents get the fines and can decide if the kids get to keep their bike or not.
As long as there’s close to zero bureaucracy and the process is seamless and digital, sure. I’m totally against anything that puts less people commuting by bike on the streets, and complicated registration is one such thing.
Many bike shops will register the bike frame serial number for you when you buy it.
I’m fine with slightly less bikes on the street if it’s just the people who aren’t responsible enough to be in public with them.
They can cause damage to property and injure people. If you drive a car without a seatbelt you get a fine. If you ride a bike without a helmet you should also get a fine. Head injuries cause strain on the healthcare system. There’s plenty of reasons to require people to register and insure bikes like vehicles.
Switzerland had this up until 2012, when it was abolished because it cost more to administer than it was worth.
If you’re in a situation where you need to outspeed a truck to not die, you have tp consider your life choices. I can’t even imagine a situation that could lead to it, if we don’t count “I just randomly started to cross a busy road” ones.
This makes no sense in the geographical context. The reverse is usually true here in the Netherlands. Modded electric bikes and scooters go way above the legal limit and put themselves in danger by speeding across infront of trafic. Where cars have to suddenly account for them beeing somewhere quicker then expected/ coming out of “nowhere”.
Yes, I know and I see them daily. I was answering on a comment “ooh, they will slow me down and I’ll get in a dangerous situation because of that!” The one thing i don’t see much is "speeding in front of traffic, as in Copenhagen there are not many places where there are no bicycle lanes and the cars are driving fast at the same time.
It’s relatively common for a car to merge into you where I live. If you’re adjacent to the front wheel it’s safer to accelerate the rest of the way than it is to brake.
Edit: it’s also insane that they’re trying to do this with e-bikes before cars.
