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by clay_the_ripper 2829 days ago
While I think applying this to scooters is one thing, I do not want to live in a world where my car is artificially limited to 15mph in a 15 zone.

Yeah maybe we could reduce accidents by 0.1% or whatever. But you just know the damn thing will go on the fritz at some point or gps will be wrong and you’ll be going too slow somewhere else, or you’ll be a rush in an emergency and be unable to get where you’re going...plus (and this May be unpopular) that world just sounds boring and crappy. I don’t want my life controlled by the cloud.

2 comments

"I do not want to live in a world where my car is artificially limited to 15mph in a 15 zone."

15 - 20mph is a pretty significant speed limit. At that speed a car - pedestrian collision is highly unlikely to be fatal. Much faster and the chances of a fatality increase quickly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Zero

I would really like to see 20mph speed limits become much more common and strictly enforced. There's no reason we need to risk killing people just to get someplace faster.

There's a difference between saying we should have speed limits and forcing cars to follow the limit. That's like having your computer checking the hash for every image it renders in case you're trying to view something illegal. It just opens itself up to a lot of abuse.
More crosswalks, and enforcement of their use, could also reduce the risk to pedestrians. There is room for give and take here. Trying to retroactively enforce 20mph limits on fast roads is pretty silly, just design the damn roads better and it wouldn't be necessary.
Safer road design is a big part of Vision Zero.
>While I think applying this to scooters is one thing

Yeah. The top of a slippery slope that ends in skateboard insurance, bicycle licesnes the DOT setting up stings to catch overweight wheelbarrows. No thanks. The level of regulation that applies to mopeds is too damn high. The last thing I want is a precedent for regulating even smaller things.

How do you feel about getting your ass beat for endangering pedestrians with a scooter on a sidewalk, instead?
If it's only done when actual endangerment has occurred, seems like the most efficient solution.