Amsterdam is one of six European cities that will soon test a system that can remotely limit the speed of electric bicycles. Amsterdam’s traffic alderman, Melanie van der Horst, tested the system herself last week, NRC reports.

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.

  • ericbomb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    305·
    8 months ago

    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.

    • toofpic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      8 months ago

      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

      • ericbomb@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        8 months ago

        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.

        • Adam@doomscroll.n8e.devEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          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)

        • toofpic@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          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 :)

      • ericbomb@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        8 months ago

        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?

        • LesserAbe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          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.

    • Zpiritual@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      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.