That's 18.6 mph, slower than the speed limit around US schools. Is the expectation people will go 20 or 25 mph (32 to 40 km/h) in reality?
FWIW, 20mph school zones seem to be becoming more common in the US.
> The probability of a pedestrian surviving an accident in which the car was moving at 30km/h is 95%
Fast motorways are incredibly safe because no pedestrians and energy absorbing crash barriers and traffic control/monitoring. There are exceptions e.g. where there is fog for example.
Fast roads in cities should ideally be designed so it is really hard for pedestrians to get on them except at the intersections.
On the other hand, in Amsterdam there's usually going to be some sort of grocery store somewhere in walking or biking distance; and a lot of train stations have grocery stores too, so you can just pick up some last minute shopping on the way back from work for instance.
That usually indicates your city is a huge suburbia with a few skyscrapers in the middle.
Bad city design leads to bad results, and a higher speed limit won't solve your problems.
lolwut? i haven't gotten a single camera-based ticket, ever - many decades of driving in the US - unlike say Italy where every time i drive (about once in 5 years) i seem to break some stupid minor rule and get a photo ticket
Do you really think that in a country with extensive rail and a bicycle culture as a national identity that the reason for reduced speed limits is a cash grab?
Is it so alien to you to consider that perhaps the country is implementing these kinds of laws to reduce the harmful effects of automobiles with the ultimate end game being the extinction of car culture?
Cars are a privilege, you need a licence from the government to drive them, are you going to advocate for removing driver licencing as well? Because that's pretty much full government control over who can drive or not. Pretty authoritarian, no?
Basically if you put Germans and Dutch people together, they'll argue which country has the best car infrastructure. The grass is greener on the other side. Dutch people say you can go faster on German roads, while Germans say that the dutch speed limits make traffic more smooth and logical.
Either way, once you drive out to the highway you can theoretically lock the cruise control to 100 km/h [1] (including on intersections) until ~5-10 min from your destination.[2] That's not a bad country for cars!
[1] Except eg. Amsterdam ring-road which is 80 km/h. Exception that proves the rule.
[2] I did say theoretically. Roads ARE busy and you may need to tap the brakes sometimes. Though... in practice I'm willing to bet that on any given day some number of people actually manage to achieve this by accident. (outside rush hour and with a little luck)