Even with the caveats about limited data and untangling causation and correlation, the statistics are striking: the first year of a scheme in Wales where the speed limit on urban roads was lowered to 20mph resulted in about 100 fewer people killed or seriously injured.
To be fair in NL a lot of people ignore the speed limits if the road invites you to drive faster (not enough traffic calming stuff). Not a lot and still driving safely but for example there’s this huge straight road near my house that they changed to 30 recently but didn’t make any changes to the infrastructure and pretty much everyone still drives 50 on it. Also on highways it’s 100 everywhere during the day but you see a lot driving 110/120 where there’s no speed control.
Having driven in like 20 different countries, believe me, in NL traffic is calm and most people obeynthe limits quite nicely
Oh yeah definitely the Dutch are docile drivers, if a bit distracted… It wasn’t my point that they’re crazy drivers, just a bit over the limit if you don’t force it on them through infrastructure. Nothing compared to other countries for sure. Their biggest pitfall is their love for just hanging 20cm behind you regardless of the roads you’re on, the speed you’re going or anything else really, they don’t even want to overtake most the time, they just like hanging out right behind the car in front.