That will be a lot of buggies

[MaxPC]

We're seeing a few Amish buggies and I worry that with people around here not being used to them that accidents will happen on our hilly and windy back roads. It will take some time for local businesses to figure out what to do about horses hitching up to random posts on their parking lots and leaving piles of road apples. I guess it's time to put in hitching posts.

I wonder too about the accidents. Will the Amish begin to create 'buggy lanes' on either side of the road? As to the horse apples, I would not mind all that free manure.

Random thought: if Amish were to move to the UK, would they have trouble adjusting to driving on the left side of the road? In my opinion, the UK could do with 200,000 Amish right now.

Many of our country roads are too narrow to even have painted lines, let alone a buggy lane.

I can see a number of the communities get together to create buggy lanes on the shoulder of the roads, both sides. There are so very many possibilities and designs to do so.

[Josh]

Hardly anyone makes dedicated buggy lanes and for various reasons it doesn’t improve safety that much to do so. 77 in Holmes County is one of the few example.

They have the same problems as bike lanes in that things like left turns become treacherous.

The other day I was behind two people on e-bike tricycles who were going around 35, I was going 45-55. They decided to turn left and didn’t signal - just slowed down. I really wish “Amish” would quit blatantly violating traffic laws like this. It would have been very easy to try to pass them and then end up hitting them as they turned left.

[Ken]

Hardly anyone makes dedicated buggy lanes and for various reasons it doesn’t improve safety that much to do so. 77 in Holmes County is one of the few example.

They have the same problems as bike lanes in that things like left turns become treacherous.

The other day I was behind two people on e-bike tricycles who were going around 35, I was going 45-55. They decided to turn left and didn’t signal - just slowed down. I really wish “Amish” would quit blatantly violating traffic laws like this. It would have been very easy to try to pass them and then end up hitting them as they turned left.

My commute is 12.5 miles each way diagonally across a suburban metro area. I mostly do it by e-bike. I very much try to avoid getting hit so I use mirrors, my bike has rear-facing radar to indicate approaching cars, and I always look back and signal with using left turn lanes. But then I know I'm more obsessive about such things than many others.

It has been my observation that generally speaking ALL road users are scofflaws when it comes to traffic laws. We don't have buggies around here but we have bikes and e-bikes which seem to generate unexplained road rage in some. But I would guess that any of us could go out with a video camera to some busy and complex stretch of highway and document roughly half the cars on the road violating some traffic law or another. Speed limits in urban areas most obviously. E-bikes are speed-limited. Cars are not. Which is the greater hazard? But also rolling stops through stop signs, rolling right turns through stop signs and red lights, failure to signal lane changes, fail to signal turns, tailgating at unsafe close distances, running red lights, etc. etc. When you start paying attention it is literally the case that every road user seems to be violating one traffic law or another.

I think we have just become immune to noticing traffic law violations by cars because they are so ubiquitous and just treat them as part of the background noise of using the highway. But then we notice every violation by every other road user since they are less frequent road users and stand out more.

Point I'm making is that yes, of course Amish road users should be following traffic laws and signaling. But I would be surprised if they are any more egregious scofflaws than the ordinary car driver.

[MaxPC]

Hardly anyone makes dedicated buggy lanes and for various reasons it doesn’t improve safety that much to do so. 77 in Holmes County is one of the few example.

They have the same problems as bike lanes in that things like left turns become treacherous.

The other day I was behind two people on e-bike tricycles who were going around 35, I was going 45-55. They decided to turn left and didn’t signal - just slowed down. I really wish “Amish” would quit blatantly violating traffic laws like this. It would have been very easy to try to pass them and then end up hitting them as they turned left.

Quite; I have seen those in motor vehicles commit the same violations too. Then again, I do hope that a solution can be found for safety. I should very much like to see horse and buggies continue to be used.

[Josh]

E-bikes around here are not speed limited. The governors are disabled.

My car is speed limited (to 118 MPH)

[Ken]

E-bikes around here are not speed limited. The governors are disabled.

My car is speed limited (to 118 MPH)

That might be possible on inexpensive e-bikes with mechanical governors that basically count wheel RPMs. But the newer models with digital controls have speed controls built into the software which makes that nearly impossible to disable. You'd have to be a serious hacker and then you would automatically invalidate your warranty if they caught you. You can go faster than the limit on e-bikes but the motor just cuts out electronically when you reach the speed limit. Mine is a Class 3 so has a 28 mph limit. I exceed that all the time riding down hills and have gotten it up to over 40 mph. But on the flats there is no way I can pedal a heavy e-bike at over 28 mph under my own power, even for short bursts.

That is frankly fast enough for riding on bike lanes in the suburbs. I can often keep up with the pace of traffic. Any faster and I'd be going perilously fast past curb cuts and intersections where people are pulling in and out and not expecting a bike to be going that fast.

[Josh]

Simply go to any e-bike shop around here and they’ll flash new software on it that will remove the speed governor.

[Valerie]

Hardly anyone makes dedicated buggy lanes and for various reasons it doesn’t improve safety that much to do so. 77 in Holmes County is one of the few example.

They have the same problems as bike lanes in that things like left turns become treacherous.

The other day I was behind two people on e-bike tricycles who were going around 35, I was going 45-55. They decided to turn left and didn’t signal - just slowed down. I really wish “Amish” would quit blatantly violating traffic laws like this. It would have been very easy to try to pass them and then end up hitting them as they turned left.

Quite; I have seen those in motor vehicles commit the same violations too. Then again, I do hope that a solution can be found for safety. I should very much like to see horse and buggies continue to be used.

Holmes County OH seems to be the e-bike capital of the world presently. They have several Amazon e-bike shops that are quite large and busy. The E-Bike has been a great solution for them in several ways. It has allowed them to keep from hiring drivers as often and hitching up the horse and buggy. It has taken more horse and buggies off the road for random trips or work commute. That has helped cut down the buggy traffic in a very touristy area. Holmes is very hilly & winding roads abound. There is always the occasional buggy accident by careless drivers, and these are often fatal. There are e-bike accidents as well and as an e-bike Rider you do not come out ahead against a car.

I just bought my E-Bike from Amish owned business but i am somewhat afraid due to careless drivers these days. The Amish seem to have no fear on them and I am glad to see they put a lot of lights on their bikes, flashing lights even on their safety vests and helmets, something you never used to see the Amish wearing.

[Valerie]

Hardly anyone makes dedicated buggy lanes and for various reasons it doesn’t improve safety that much to do so. 77 in Holmes County is one of the few example.

They have the same problems as bike lanes in that things like left turns become treacherous.

The other day I was behind two people on e-bike tricycles who were going around 35, I was going 45-55. They decided to turn left and didn’t signal - just slowed down. I really wish “Amish” would quit blatantly violating traffic laws like this. It would have been very easy to try to pass them and then end up hitting them as they turned left.

Quite; I have seen those in motor vehicles commit the same violations too. Then again, I do hope that a solution can be found for safety. I should very much like to see horse and buggies continue to be used.

Holmes County OH seems to be the e-bike capital of the world presently. They have several Amazon e-bike shops that are quite large and busy. The E-Bike has been a great solution for them in several ways. It has allowed them to keep from hiring drivers as often and hitching up the horse and buggy. It has taken more horse and buggies off the road for random trips or work commute. That has helped cut down the buggy traffic in a very touristy area. Holmes is very hilly & winding roads abound. There is always the occasional buggy accident by careless drivers, and these are often fatal. There are e-bike accidents as well and as an e-bike Rider you do not come out ahead against a car.

I just bought my E-Bike from Amish owned business but i am somewhat afraid due to careless drivers these days. The Amish seem to have no fear on them and I am glad to see they put a lot of lights on their bikes, flashing lights even on their safety vests and helmets, something you never used to see the Amish wearing.

[Josh]

Here’s an even better solution: just buy a car.