"Everbody should use AI"

-Person financially benefiting from everybody using AI

There was an update on this a couple days ago from Accursed Farms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgoODQFrPgw

tl;dw They were already expecting the Commission to be unwilling to propose new legislation, but they have a plan to go forward and achieve what they set out to do, using existing legislation. That would bypass the Commission all together, since no new legislation would be required.

That's fair

Norway is both a monarchy and a democracy. There are several countries in Europe that are considered to be some of the most democratic in the world, which just happen to have a monarch as the head of state instead of a president.

What you are thinking of is an absolute monarchy, rather than a constitutional monarchy.

The average person [..] is surprisingly afraid to mess with electronics

These e-bikes often don't require you to mess with electronics to "tune" them. It is usually as simple as flicking a switch in an app. Manufacturers know what they are doing and make the process as convenient as possible.

The most I have seen is a police estimation that 5-10% of e-bikes on the roads are illegally tuned.

That is 1 in 20 e-bikes on the road. Given the total amount of e-bikes on the road, those are insane numbers.
My comment didn't say "most people", it says "many people".

That is already how it is set up in Europe.

Regular e-bikes have to have their electric assist limited to 25 km/h, but you can still pedal faster than that on your own power.
If an e-bike is not limited to 25 km/h, then it falls in the category of speed pedelec, which requires a licence plate and insurance.

However, it is trivially easy to illegally remove the limit on some models of e-bike, and many people (mostly teenagers) do remove that limit. They then recklessly cycle at excessive speeds down the bike path, without regard of other cyclists who may be cycling there.

The issue in the Netherlands (idk about other place in Europe?) is lack of enforcement of the existing rules against tuning e-bikes.

Edit: Also worth noting that this is by no means a new problem.

We used to have the exact same problem with people tuning their mopeds, back when blue-plated mopeds (which are also supposed to be limited to 25 km/h) did not yet have a helmet requirement. After helmets were made obligatory a few years ago, most of these people moved to e-bikes instead.

I don't like the idea that we should be implementing sub-optimal laws with the assumption that they won't be properly enforced anyway. Then it will be the same as all those other laws we already don't sufficiently enforce, such as reckless road usage.

If we are going to implement a hard speed limit we should enforce that speed limit, and not just leave it at the discretion of the police officer to determine whether they feel like it is something that should be enforced or not.

Edit: That is why I argue in favour of an advisory speed, rather than a hard speed limit.

I'm also Dutch and I'm not against the idea of an advisory speed on the bike lanes (like they do in Belgium), but I think a hard speed limit at 20 km/h is too low and restrictive.

A lot of cyclists (including myself) naturally cycle at a speed faster than that, and are most comfortable cycling at that speed. This limit would also apply to them, not just the mopeds and e-bikes. That reduces cycling comfort, which I don't think you should be doing if you want to encourage people to take the bike.

By all means tackle the problem of speeding mopeds and e-bikes. But don't penalise the regular cyclist who cycles fast, but pays attention to their fellow cyclist and slows down when the situation calls for it.

I'll copy my comment on this article from a different thread

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As a Dutchman, I’m not a fan of this proposed speed limit.

My natural speed at which I comfortably cycle is around 25 km/h, which is perfectly safe if you pay attention and slow down when it is necessary in order not to hinder your fellow road users. The issue is people who cycle recklessly without keeping other cyclists in mind, in my opinion.

Enforcement is the key. And we already have reckless road usage laws.

I much prefer the Belgian method, where they set a recommended speed limit with signs of 25 km/h on the bikepath. You can cycle faster, but that’s at your own risk.

Shared bike/pedestian paths are very uncommon in the Netherlands, and I don't think there are any mandatory bikepaths that are explicitely shared with pedestrians.