Speed limit to be reduced from 60 to 50 mph

Yavvy

heard this on the radio today.. seems like a mad decision to me. I mean jesus... 50 mph.. thats just crazy

lowering the limit is not the answer..making the right speed limits in the right places is. For example The lucan dual carrageway is 40mph and so is the main street ??

Its silly, a dual carrageway with no one entering or leaving suddenly has a limit of 30 or 40 while a country lane has 60mph and there is only enough room for 1 car !!

Opinions ?

Genghis

Its not the ‘national’ limit that they are reducing, but the limit for ‘country roads’ – well according to Newstalk anyway. Does anyone know what constitutes a country road? Is it non national, secondary and regional roads? IMHO this makes sense anyway, a lot of times on backroads there is neither the space, the condition, or the straightness of roads to sensibly drive over 50mph anyway.

John R

There are also no police checks or speed cameras so it is basically meaningless.

sceptre

Originally posted by Genghis
Does anyone know what constitutes a country road? Is it non national, secondary and regional roads?

I assume it's the R roads.

Capt'n Midnight

I would assume it would be unclassified roads - ie not M, N or R

Anyway Victor should be along in a while to sort it all out.

mike65

Anyway Victor should be along in a while to sort it all out.

The new spped limits are being introduced in September when we all go metric. In many instances the speeds will be raised, such as where a 30 mph should really be 40 and lets face it where ppl drive 40 anyway! But some country roads will be cut from national limit (60) to 50. Not that the Garda will be checking as they almost never have speeds checks on anything other than N routes and urban roads....

Mike.

The_Bullman

I doubt it is R roads that are getting downgrading. After all if this were the way then a former national road(the N1) would only be a 50. And that just wouldn't make any sense at all

then again... the speed limits don't make sense anyways

Victor

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Anyway Victor should be along in a while to sort it all out.

Banned for smart comments

All public roads in Ireland are classified.
* National (N) 1-100
* Regional (R) 101-1000
* Local (L)1001-9999

Proposed limits
Class	Rural 	Urban
M  	120 kmh	120 kmh
N 	100 kmh	 50 kmh
R 	 80 kmh	 50 kmh
L 	 80 kmh	 50 kmh

As I understand it, special limits will be allowed be put in place to suit particular roads - e.g. regional roads that are built to national road standard would be allowed upgrade from 80 to 100 km/h. Others would be downgraded as need be.

In traffic calmed areas (speed ramps, etc.) limits of 30 km/h and special at points of pedestrian and cyclist congregation, e.g. schools, pedestrianised and semi-pedestrianised streets limits of 20 km/h could be put in place.

In essence, the default are the tabulated limits, with specific circumstance attracting appropriate limits.

Originally posted by The_Bullman
I doubt it is R roads that are getting downgrading. After all if this were the way then a former national road(the N1) would only be a 50. And that just wouldn't make any sense at all

This would default to 80 km/h, but given that some sections are quite good (and other lousy, especially appraoches to towns), they would tailor the limit as appropriate.

jd

Originally posted by Victor
Banned for smart comments



As I understand it, special limits will be allowed be put in place to suit particular roads - e.g. regional roads that are built to national road standard would be allowed upgrade from 80 to 100 km/h. Others would be downgraded as need be.

mmm
wonder would dome ofthe better dual carriage ways go to 120-arklow bypass for example..

Mad Mike

Originally posted by Victor

Proposed limits
Class	Rural 	Urban
M  	120 kmh	120 kmh
N 	100 kmh	 50 kmh
R 	 80 kmh	 50 kmh
L 	 80 kmh	 50 kmh

Does this mean that every road within an urban area will have a 50kph limit (about 30mph)? What about Dual carriageways?

Victor

Originally posted by jd
wonder would dome ofthe better dual carriage ways go to 120-arklow bypass for example..

Possibly, but only the ones designed to motorway or near-motorway standards.

Victor

Actually September is a lousy time to introduce something like this, especially because of the spike in accidents withthe return to school.

Originally posted by Mad Mike
Does this mean that every road within an urban area will have a 50kph limit (about 30mph)? What about Dual carriageways?

The default will be 50km/h, but individual roads, will be allowed higher - as I understand it.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0205/roads.html

Road signs to go metric in September
February 5, 2004

(18:19) The Government has decided that road signs referring to miles for distances and speeds will be withdrawn in September.

The Minister for Transport, Seámus Brennan, said he intends to pick a date in September when all road signs will go metric and will be shown in kilometres.

Speed limit signs will also be changed to kilometres per hour.

The scheme will include a reduction from 60mph to 50mph on some country roads. Under the new scheme this will be shown as 80kph.

The minister said a major information campaign will be put in place to help motorists deal with the changeover.

Earlier, Mr Brennan announced an expansion of the planning programme for national roads.

The minister said investment in 2004 will total €1,223 million, which he said will allow work to start on 17 major new schemes.

Work will also continue on 17 other schemes, 12 of which are due to be completed this year.

The minister also announced that significant progress had been made on plans to open up three vital corridors to the north, south and west.

The M1 to the North is due to be completed in 2006, the other two motorways from Dublin to Cork and Galway are due to be completed at the end of 2007.

Victor

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/02/05/story132843.html

Speed signs to be changed into kilometres
05/02/2004 - 2:16:56 pm

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has revealed that he plans to alter Ireland’s speed limits and change all road signs from miles to kilometres in September of this year.

Mr Brennan said an information campaign would be launched before the changes come into effect.

The new speed limits were recommended by a working group established by the Minister to examine the matter.

The group said some speed limits, like those on motorways and dual carriageways, should be increased, while others should be decreased, particularly in built-up areas.

Capt'n Midnight

The news on Network 2 said it would all happen on the same weekend.

Now how did that quote go...
"a good driver in a good car on a good stretch of road on a good day"

loyatemu

wonder would dome ofthe better dual carriage ways go to 120-arklow bypass for example..

yeah - the 60mph limit at Arklow is ridiculous
the road was built to motorway standard but never designated because of some stupid local dispute.

Victor

This is an extract from the report.

Victor

http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-21607168-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper.asp

Rennicks in competition for €8 million road sign contract
04/07/04 00:00
By Niamh Connolly

Rennicks, the state's largest sign-maker, will be competing for an €8 million contract to convert the country's speed limit signs to the metric system.

The company will be competing with several smaller Irish manufacturers for the contract, which will see an estimated 58,000 road signs replaced with signs showing speed limits in kilometres.

Rennicks is part of Fitzwilton, the company owned by Tony O'Reilly and his family.

As part of the contract, a further 20,000 roadside poles will be replaced with metric speed limits, according to figures provided by the National Roads Authority (NRA).The changeover to metric is being carried out to comply with EU regulations.

Tenders for the new contract must be submitted by tomorrow and new metric signs must be on motorways, as well as national primary and secondary roads, by December 31, according to an EU directive.

Up to six companies manufacture road signs for the Irish market, including Castle Brand in Nenagh, Highway Safety Developments in Kilkenny and Pembrokeshire Signs in Wales.

Rennicks is a major player and is in a strong position based on its ability to deliver a large number of signs.

Michael Egan, spokesman for the NRA, the agency overseeing the public tender, said expressions of interest had been received from all over Europe.

He said that, to encourage competition, companies were allowed to pitch for the contract for 20,000 poles on the basis of smaller lots of between 3,000 to 4,000 as well as for the entire contract.

Similarly, the contract to manufacture 58,000 metric signs has been divided into 11 sub-contracts to encourage competition in the market.

``This affords the opportunity for both big and small players, and brings in competition, rather than having only the big fish coming in,'' said Egan.

The cost of the contract will be borne by the NRA, the Department of the Environment and local authorities throughout the state.

A further €2.5 million will be spent on a public advertising campaign highlighting the advantages of falling into line with other EU states with the use of metric measurements in road signs.

Britain and the North still use imperial measurements for speed limits.

A new structure for speed limits will see the maximum speed on motorways raised to 120 kilometres per hour (80 miles per hour),while the limit will be reduced to 80kph (50mph) on secondary or country roads.

mike65

Someone's in the money! Seems like a short time-frame too.

Mike.