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Comment by Angostura | Hacker News Reader

I was somewhat annoyed by the penalising of scooters that stopped you riding on cycle paths; presumably you aren't meant to use them on there, hence the restriction.

If so, the company that limits speed to 3MPH - enough to exit the cycle path - is doing it exactly right.

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Indeed. The ones he rated poorly were the ones that tried to prevent him from breaking Los Angeles City Municipal Code 63.44.

Yes, but I like the ability to make that choice. My car is not governed, why should my scooter be? This is not unreasonble, even if inconvenient thinking.

I would generally be in favour of restrictions that stopped cars driving on cycle lanes.

Until there's a broken-down vehicle blocking the road, and the only way around it involves encroaching on the cycle lane (carefully!) ... but your hi-tech geofenced car forbids that, so you're stuck.

Or you attempt to move out of the way of an oncoming emergency vehicle, as it's barrelling down the centre of the road to reach a dying patient ... but it needs an extra couple of feet of space that you can only give it if you move partly into the cycle lane. And your car refuses.

> Or you attempt to move out of the way of an oncoming emergency vehicle, as it's barrelling down the centre of the road to reach a dying patient ... but it needs an extra couple of feet of space that you can only give it if you move partly into the cycle lane. And your car refuses.

Do you think geofencing cars out of bike lanes would lead to more or fewer deaths overall, when you include all the cases of drivers killing cyclists that would be prevented?

If there's a broken down vehicle blocking the car portion of the road, the road is closed. If the bike lane were protected with a physical barrier, you wouldn't be able to enter it. Why shouldn't it just be off limits?

I'm unhappy about a lot of the things self-driving cars will bring to our cities, but the one good thing that might happen is automatic bike lane enforcement.

At which point, letting the vehicle move at 3Mph on the cycle lane is perfectly solution (as one of these scooters companies does).

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