Well it's a good thing that your disagreement with me isn't going to translate into any votes on the matter, since Norway just adopts EU policy, and doesn't vot

Well it's a good thing that your disagreement with me isn't going to translate into any votes on the matter, since Norway just adopts EU policy, and doesn't vote on it :) More seriously, I can see that point, you can come up with good reasons either way. But I think the actual reason is just arbitrary. I'm not aware of any trial program where they tried different speeds, tried to gather statistics on safety etc. This 25 km/h number was just arbitrarily chosen by some bureaucrat, likewise for 20 mph. Whether something is an overall win for safety is a much more complex question than about the physics of colliding with a pedestrian at either 25 km/h or 30 km/h. If it was 30 perhaps you'd get more people to ride bikes, and then you'd be in the worst case colliding with a cyclist instead of that same person going 50-80 km/h in a car.