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Japan to lower residential road speed limit from 60 to 30 kph (www.japantimes.co.jp)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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The measure is aimed at reducing accidents in urban areas with heavy pedestrian traffic and narrow streets, marking a major shift in the country’s traffic rules as these roads account for around 70% of all ordinary roads nationwide.

[...] above [30 kph] the risk of pedestrians suffering fatal injuries in accidents is said to spike.

[...]

The aim of the speed limit change “is to prevent accidents by stopping dangerous driving, such as failing to slow down even on busy streets”

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[–] 53 points 1 month ago (19 children)

They've done this in a few areas of Melbourne. The fatal injury data is certainly a compelling case:

"the risk of fatality for a pedestrian hit by a vehicle travelling at 30km/h is around 10%, compared to approximately 40% at 40km/h and more than 80% at 50km/h."
https://acrs.org.au/evidence-supports-30km-h-speed-limits-in-school-zones/

I will admit that driving at 30km/h is pretty painful sometimes.

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  • [–] 32 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    I will admit that driving at 30km/h is pretty painful sometimes.

    That's probably street design issue.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    broader city design too, you shouldn't really have to spend much time on residential streets. It should be like a circulatory system, most of the traffic is on a small number of high-speed high-capacity through-roads and then it quickly splits apart into a bunch of smaller local streets.

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  • [+] -11 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    It would be painful to drive at that speed. Slowest you'll ever see in the US on public roads is generally 25mph/40kph even in residential or downtown areas. Even then most people are driving 30mph+, 48kph+

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (3 children)

    the US has some 15mph roads, and plentiful 20 mph residential roads

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    I have seen them, but it's extremely rare in my area. Maybe campgrounds and parking lots, but that's it.

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  • [+] -14 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    it is extremely hard to drive at 30 kmh. The car at its lowest power still wants to exceed 30, so it's accelerator, regen, accelerator, regen.... very jerky ride

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  • [–] 32 points 1 month ago (6 children)

    The car at its lowest power still wants to exceed 30

    Is... there a /s missing here? Because if not, that sounds like an issue with your car to be honest. I've never driven a car that had an issue keeping 30 steadily

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    I just set my cruise control to 30 kph and cruise along. No jerkiness. Just sometimes people riding my ass that can't do 30 apparently.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    There's always a few people in speed limit conversations outing themselves. Do they lack the concept of riding on your breaks? How do they navigate a parking lot where you're very likely limited to 15kph?

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  • [–] -3 points 1 month ago*

    i can't ride my breaks, as soon as I touch the brake pedal, a minimum amount of regen immediately activates. I could drive very easily at 30 with my old manual petrol car. I'm not a (complete) idiot.

    edit: it's a chinese car. Their minimum is 40. s40? easy. 30? hell

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    So according to your other comments this is a problem with your Chinese car simply being shit at driving slow? And you know that based on experience with your previous car? What exactly is the comment supposed to tell us? While I still find it unrealistic that you can not simply drive slower with that car, even if I accept that we know it is specifically an issue with that car. Who else drives such a shit car? Will they update their car to allow smooth slow driving? Who knows, but the legislature sure should not care about such nonsense when lowering the speed limit to make spaces saver.

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