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What causes most accidents?


Alexa

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10 hours ago, mrelwood said:

I don't have a clear view on what should be done about the situation. Based on my recent learning and the dangers I've noticed, I just see a notable potential for accidents, that's all. EUCs have a considerably steeper learning curve, and most people learn to ride bicycle as kids, guided by their parents. New rider situation is quite rare with bicycles. Mopeds are in the same top speed range with the latest EUCs, yet they require a licence and are not allowed on pedestrian or bicycle lanes.

I completely agree with that.

Limitations or licencing policy? I see a big difference. Currently EU is planning on setting a top speed of 25km/h for all EUCs accepted for traffic. I believe I can live with that as it's a big improvement over the 17km/h I've been limited to since June 2016, but I can imagine it to be a problem for many riders here. Having to prove your skills before being allowed in traffic should be easiew to chew, and could save a few accidents. Again, I don't think it can be done with reasonable cost and efficiency.

Did you know that EUCs have been legal in Finland since 1.1.2016? The legal limits are a maximum of 1000W nominal power and 25km/h top speed, units with a maximum top speed of 15km/h are considered pedestrians from the legal point of view, above that, same as bicycles (with some exceptions, like allowed to ride on walkways with "speed adjusted to pedestrian traffic"), see for example here for details:    http://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/segway-ja-muut-kevyet-sahkoajoneuvot-ovat-jatkossa-laillisia-kulkuvalineita-liikenteessa/716277/

Kevyisiin, enintään 15 km/h kulkeviin laitteisiin sovelletaan jatkossa jalankulkijan liikennesääntöjä, eli ne rinnastetaan potkulautoihin ja rullaluistimiin.

Isompia, enintään 25 km/h kulkevia sähköajoneuvoja saa käyttää polkupyöräilijän liikennesäännöillä. Segwayn kaltaisia tasapainottuvia kulkuvälineitä saa käyttää myös jalkakäytävillä, kunhan niillä ajaa enintään kävelynopeutta.

 

Isommissa laitteissa täytyy käyttää polkupyöräilijän tavoin kypärää ja niissä tulee olla heijastimet ja äänimerkinantolaite.

 

Or for the full law text (somewhere in there, plus the details probably spanned more parts of the law collections than just this):  http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/1981/19810267

Sooo... technically the faster/more powerful wheels are still illegal. Take a wild guess how many police officers actually can identify the different models, or test drive them to see if they go faster? ;)

 

 

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On 31/03/2017 at 9:27 PM, esaj said:

Did you know that EUCs have been legal in Finland since 1.1.2016?

Yes, I'm partially disabled and use an Airwheel A3 daily. I did read on the legislation just to know the exact legal stance if I get stopped by police, mall security etc. The 17km/h limit is built in the Airwheel A3, sadly. And latest phone app versions are even worse: 15km/h, probably exactly for the legislation.

On 31/03/2017 at 9:27 PM, esaj said:

Take a wild guess how many police officers actually can identify the different models, or test drive them to see if they go faster? ;)

Very true. Until EUCs become common here, I don't think the legality will affect anything other than local distributors, which seem to be very few and outdated anyway. Any sane buyer will order abroad.

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My knowledge is there are laws yet for traffic regulations that includes all vehicles. We need know this rules and laws like speed limits in pedestrian lanes (in my country are 10km/h) for the electric vehicles like wheelchairs. And one who can be applied to bikes or EUCs is reckless driving, if any driver shows him do crazy things or putting others in danger due his inexperience police can penalty him. Other motivation is we don't have any insurance, all costs from the damage we caused come to us.

I hope that's enough for keeping us safe and pretty

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21 hours ago, mrelwood said:

Airwheel A3 daily

Whoa, those are pretty cool!  17kmh is fast enough, you are going 3-4 times faster than someone walking, but I guess you are right that more speed would be nice to have.

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I treat my wheel as something halfway between a pedestrian and a bicycle. So, I go faster for longer distances than walking but slower than a bicycle. This kinda makes sense because a walker has no wheels and a bicycle has two; split the difference and we have the uniwheel.

My observation is that the uniwheel is used in two almost entirely different ways depending if you reside in the USA or in Europe. USA is so car centric that a big fast wheel is almost required if you use it for transportation. Certainly almost all the bicyclist I observe in the wild are racer type with people wearing Spandex. Like they are in a race or something. They get injured all the time.

Europe (Germany) I see people  go just slightly faster than walking, just chilling and cruising. People actually bicycle in normal clothing; Spandex is quite unusual. Do you really need regulation if unicycles are tiny? Methinks not, but if the unicycles are actually approaching gas scooter performance then perhaps regulation is appropriate.

In the USA scooters under 49cc are entirely unregulated, with no insurance or registration requirements whatsoever, although some parks do exclude them from using bicycle paths.

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On 4/3/2017 at 3:35 AM, steve454 said:

Whoa, those are pretty cool!  17kmh is fast enough, you are going 3-4 times faster than someone walking, but I guess you are right that more speed would be nice to have.

It is well enough for going to the local grocery store etc, but taking a 10km (6 mile) trip to my parents, the long straight roads with nobody else on them do get really boring. Especially now that I also use a faster EUC also. I actually would visit them more if the A3 would go 20km/h. And I will once I finish my crazy horse, an A3 style vehicle built from two Lhotzs!

Which is again relevant to this topic, I'm sure there are strong opinions on wether a self made vehicle should be allowed at all.

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15 hours ago, mrelwood said:

Which is again relevant to this topic, I'm sure there are strong opinions on wether a self made vehicle should be allowed at all.

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Home-made, you say?  :whistling:

Long story short: after getting my FW-shells destroyed in the autumn of 2015, after the BMSs of the custom packs cut out on downhill due to overvoltage, I built my own frame over the next month or so. While it did work, it was very top heavy (no surprise there), but more importantly, as the mainboard was further away from the axle, it would react more violently to slightest tilt back or forward, making it pretty hard to ride. I tried it in the forest paths, but hitting stones there it would almost throw me off, because of the very strong acceleration it did as the hit caused a slight tilt forward. Never got around to figure out how I could encase the mainboard properly on the lower part. Here's a video of the first test ride:

 

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1 hour ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

Oh the famous Franken-Reality Ikea Coolio Knightrider wheel... I remember it well... did you ever ride it during the day?  :w00t2:

No, only late at evening or at night... I considered it too dangerous to ride when there's people in the bike lanes/pedestrian walkways/forest paths. :P

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