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by jillesvangurp
838 days ago
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It takes about 45 minutes to travel that distance in a city (Berlin in my case) and you arrive all sweaty. I used to do this a couple of times a week when our office was on the other side of town. I would bring a clean shirt obviously. It's doable but not for everyone. Ebikes make such a distance very easy. A friend of mine lives on the edge of Berlin (Friedrichshagen) and his commute is a full hour with an e-bike. A bit over 20 kilometers. I walk to work these days. Much more relaxing and I listen to podcasts. I don't mind if it takes a bit of time. Anything up to 5, 6 kilometers is fine with me. I gave up my bike last year (I was renting one) as I don't need it anymore. The issue with biking in Berlin is similar to what the Amish in this article are experiencing: it's dangerous. Traffic is not well adjusted to bikes and city planners keep producing these crazy traffic situations with their ineptness. Construction sites. Buses that have to cross the bike lane to the bus stop, etc. And that's before you consider that the rule that Germans love rules has one giant exception: traffic rules. Jumping a red light. Not a problem. It was orange a second ago and who can tell the difference? Taxis driving 90 in a 50km zone (i.e. the city limits): happens constantly. 30km speed limits? More of a guideline and those signs are used very sparingly. Speed cameras are science fiction. I've never seen one in Berlin. |
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I've seen several, but they are carted around and look like some trailer parked innocently on sidewalk, I was curious about one "futuristic" looking trailer thinking it was maybe a bike garage or something but after careful observing it was indeed a speed camera.
> 30km speed limits? More of a guideline and those signs are used very sparingly.
Yeah, unless they are near school zone. Then they are almost invisible and you have a radar with flash to make sure that you know you are speeding.
There are more outside Berlin. I drove one road where it had a side road every 1km or so. And of course constant 60-80-60-80-60 signs. And a radar exactly there where you finally said "fsck it" and didn't slow at that next 60km/h.