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.

  • @NarrativeBearEnglish
    -5•8 months ago

    I wish cars would get speed limiters installed. Trucks and trailers especially, why does a truck try and overtake a car anyway? Or another truck?

    Why stop only at e-bikes? Get them installed inside mobility scooters as well, slow down Grandma! /s

    • admiralteal
      15•8 months ago

      There are no US roads I am aware of where the speed limit is over 80mph.

      Why can a stock US car go faster than 80mph, then? Why does NHSTA approve of cars that can go double, triple that speed? Makes no sense to me, for sure. Especially when similar agencies are doing idiotic and pointless shit like banning Kei Trucks for “safety” reasons when these vehicles are objectively safer and better for the public than any current-model “light truck” 120mph+ road yacht.

      Europe approached this same question with a pretty straightforward answer: Intelligent Speed Assistance. It’ll be mandatory relatively soon for all new cars, as far as I am aware. It’s already mandatory for new cars in the EU. There’s some nasty privacy implications of it, obviously. Very possibly nasty enough to bring me to a “no” overall on the idea. But the safety considerations are without doubt correct.

      • @NarrativeBearEnglish
        6•8 months ago

        Intelligent Speed Assistance is great, went to Spain a few years back and essentially the car would know the limit of each road and give you a little signal/sound each time you went over. Great feature tbh, took about a day to get used to it at first but after that it was smooth sailing.

      • IcebladeEnglish
        2•8 months ago

        I didn’t know that, sounds incredibly dystopian tbh. Guess I’ll have to keep my dinosaur of a car running as long as possible.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•8 months ago

        Running a motor at or near its mechanical limit for long periods is very bad for it and also is less efficient (in terms of fuel economy). That’s why cars are “capable” of 140mph, even though there is nowhere you can actually drive that fast except for race tracks.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•8 months ago

        What is it for though? It’s overridable, so essentially it just makes it easier to ride without paying too much attention. Also, the speedometer legally had to be slightly lower than the actual speed, sp you’re actually driivng slower than the speed limit.

      • @br3dEnglish
        -4•8 months ago

        Always good to get the US perspective on an article about Amsterdam

        • @[email protected]English
          4•8 months ago

          We Europeans often share our view on US’s business, and you want to gatekeep Americans from sharing their view on European’s stuff? The whole point of a link aggregator with comments is people sharing their view.