R569 speed limit

Aquavid

Meet the R569.

An ordinary R-road, a back road winding through the Kerry hills and along the Roughty Valley.

A road just like any of hundreds of other rural R roads the length of the country.

Except . . . the R569 is special. It is somehow deserving of a 100kmh speed limit, more deserving than all the other R roads which are 80kmh as standard, even roads like the R132 which are former N roads now bypassed by motorways, often wide and straight and with hard shoulders.

The R569 is 100kmh all the way through the narrow twisty section to Morleys Bridge and beyond, with signs every km or so just in case you thought it was a mistake.

All the way to Kilgarvan, home of Jackie Healy Rae, after which, despite being generally straighter and wider, it is the standard 80kmh to the bigger town of Kenmare.

Odd that, isn't it?

Aquavid

DerekP11

Its only odd if you live in the real world of believing that CCs haven't got a clue and they are made up of people so isolated from the bigger picture, it makes them irrelevent to life itself.

You're obviously one of those people. Well done for being in the majority that has no power.

corktina

thats bizarre isnt it!

fletch

I would love to take a laden SUV down that road with the cruise control set to 100kph and see how it copes! :eek:

Zoney

That's quite extraordinary! To whom do the councils apply for such special speed limits (assuming it's legit), and can someone enquire if such a special limit was actually applied for (or did the council just throw up some 100 km/h signs)?

Is it the DOT rather than NRA as it's not a national road?

Niall1234

It all a f*cking joke.

That road has a 100 kph limit, yet the old Cork to Fermoy road has a 80kph. And let I add, the Gardai are crawling over the old Cork to Fermoy road as they know people are speeding on it, eventhough 100 kph is perfectly safe on that road, wonsidering its a wide single carriageway road with hard shoulder.

All this has to be sorted out. By right, the NRA etc should do a review of each road in Ireland. Sections of R roads which are acceptable to have a 100kph limit should have a 100 kph. Otherwise the limit should be left at 80, or even slower for dangerous sections with very twisty road.

Disgraceful stuff IMO.

Skyhater

Zoney wrote:

That's quite extraordinary! To whom do the councils apply for such special speed limits (assuming it's legit), and can someone enquire if such a special limit was actually applied for (or did the council just throw up some 100 km/h signs)?

Is it the DOT rather than NRA as it's not a national road?

For "R", "L" and "unassigned" roads, the council set the speed limits.....so they don't need to apply to anyone!!
For "M" and "N" roads, the NRA set the speed limits.

We need a single body to standardise speed limits..... The change over to km/h (and the so called "review") a few years back was such a wast of money, and a missed opportunity to put in logical speed limits!!!

murphaph

It's a gross anomaly alright. Wonder what the accident stats are on that road, low? I doubt even a corrupt council would up the limit on a 'notorious' stretch. Strange all the same.

Zoney

Skyhater wrote:

For "R", "L" and "unassigned" roads, the council set the speed limits.....so they don't need to apply to anyone!!

I don't believe that's quite true. Putting a 100 km/h - or indeed theoretically a 120 km/h limit - on an R road is applying a "special" limit as it's above the normal 80km/h maximum for that road type. As far as I know the council do have to make an application for "special" limits.

Skyhater

Zoney wrote:

I don't believe that's quite true. Putting a 100 km/h - or indeed theoretically a 120 km/h limit - on an R road is applying a "special" limit as it's above the normal 80km/h maximum for that road type. As far as I know the council do have to make an application for "special" limits.

I had though that it was the sold responsibility for the council for non-national roads.....but i'm not 100% certain. Maybe somebody can confirm this?

HelterSkelter

You should send that photo to irishspeedtraps.com, they have an article on roads like that on their site... http://www.irishspeedtraps.com/SpeedLimits.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ofgtw9VkjA

Hotblack Desiato

fletch wrote:

I would love to take a laden SUV down that road with the cruise control set to 100kph and see how it copes! :eek:

I know it's almost a cliche at this stage, but it's true. "It's a limit, not a target".

Just because the limit is XXX doesn't imply that that speed is going to be safe for all vehicles, all drivers, at all times, under all weather conditions.

Ultimately it's up to the driver to select an appropriate speed for the conditions - therefore we need to be training drivers properly not just repeating the "slow down" mantra all the time (while targeting duallers for speed checks.)

is_that_so

IIRC there was a mad rush to get signs out there when we switched to kph. Even then there was and still is a "discretionary" ability available to CCs to review or alter speed limits. AFAIK this requires input from a road engineer and a Superintendent( What is it with supers that they seem to know more than anyone else? )
I am only aware of one such change in the recent past - the Drogheda-Monasterboice section from 80 kph to 100 kph.

Stark

ninja900 wrote:

I know it's almost a cliche at this stage, but it's true. "It's a limit, not a target".

Just because the limit is XXX doesn't imply that that speed is going to be safe for all vehicles, all drivers, at all times, under all weather conditions.

Ultimately it's up to the driver to select an appropriate speed for the conditions - therefore we need to be training drivers properly not just repeating the "slow down" mantra all the time (while targeting duallers for speed checks.)

Sure in that case, we should just do away with speed limits altogether and trust drivers to make their own judgements. Since that's not going to happen, we should apply speed limits that make sense, instead of running a random number generator on the map of Ireland.

bkehoe

Has been like this on the R280 for over a year now;

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054983785

Hotblack Desiato

Stark wrote:

Sure in that case, we should just do away with speed limits altogether and trust drivers to make their own judgements.

You miss the point I think, very often the maximum safe speed is below the posted speed limit, 50km/h is legal past a school at chucking out time... so yes we do rely a great deal on drivers to make sensible decisions and not just about speed, either.
What we're doing now, with speed cameras and the endless 'slow down' ads, is giving drivers the idea that you're safe as long as you're within the speed limit, which is often far from the truth.

Since that's not going to happen, we should apply speed limits that make sense, instead of running a random number generator on the map of Ireland.

I would say that sensible speed limits is equally unlikely to happen... given that successive Ministers for Transport have failed to get local authorities to do anything about glaring errors in their areas.