Gatso Van in Waterford

Flyer1

Hi folks,

Just a heads up to the innocent folk driving the ring roads of Waterford. The 'ole gatso van was out and about doing it's tricks on the ring road just down by the six cross roads today. This one is a 08-D High roof white transit van, it was parked up in one of the lay-by/bus stop types along the ring road.

Keep an eye out as it will no doubt be roaming the roads of Waterford over the coming weeks.

Safe motoring

mayordenis

What is this about just out of curiosity?

JPA

After a google, it seems to be a van with a speed camera on it/in it.

CantGetNoSleep

Good to see they are making sure people are not speeding on a dangerous road with a high speed limit again

spartacus93

Meant to post this actually. Spotted it in ferrybank last saturday morning. parked in the middle of the road near jurys hotel, facing towards town.

nkay1985

Flyer1 wrote: »

Hi folks,

Just a heads up to the innocent folk driving the ring roads of Waterford. The 'ole gatso van was out and about doing it's tricks on the ring road just down by the six cross roads today. This one is a 08-D High roof white transit van, it was parked up in one of the lay-by/bus stop types along the ring road.

Keep an eye out as it will no doubt be roaming the roads of Waterford over the coming weeks.

Safe motoring

What time were they out there? Because I drive that road to and from work every day and have only seen them once. I work 3 shift cycle so that may be why but I wonder do they only check at busy times etc.

marlin vs

Same one was out by the old cattle mart on the old Kilmeaden rd this morning.

mike65

Raise the speed limit to 80!

Mossy Monk

60 as a speed limit on a dual carriageway is madness.

Flyer1

It was about lunchtime when they were on it...

It's an absolute disgrace of a speed limit for the road anyway. It needs to be 80. Even letting the car freewheel down that stretch is enough to break the speed limit....

honeybadger

its 60 for a reason lads,ya have to accept it or put the time on your watch or mobile forward a bit

Gadgie

honeybadger wrote: »

its 60 for a reason lads

Which is...?

honeybadger

1learner drivers,2 some of the roads around ya want to be mental to do 60 on them haha,3 ya have a beter survival chance of walking away at 60 than 80 unless your a pedestrian and your hit by a car and you have the reflexes of superman batman to just fluke getting out of the way ect,4 someboaady needs you in thre life,5 ur saving the planet,the list is exhaustive yeno and with this recession period were all going thru yar going to cut corners keepig the car on the road til u can nct it and in most honest straight tinking heads ya get a better heap of junk cause its cheaper in the long run of tings

nkay1985

honeybadger wrote: »

1learner drivers,2 some of the roads around ya want to be mental to do 60 on them haha,3 ya have a beter survival chance of walking away at 60 than 80 unless your a pedestrian and your hit by a car and you have the reflexes of superman batman to just fluke getting out of the way ect,4 someboaady needs you in thre life,5 ur saving the planet,the list is exhaustive yeno

I actually don't think it's got anything to do with any of the above things. It's to do with where it's located - I think it's classed as being inside the city environs or something like that. It's like when you're going into Lemybrien or one of those places, it goes from 100/80 down to 60 for a while, then 50. Where the link road is one of the 60 zones.

I wonder what the cops let people away with. I don't know anybody who's been done out there.

Sully

mike65 wrote: »

Raise the speed limit to 80!

Speaking of which, I was told that the Young Fine Gael branch in Waterford did a big campaign to increase the speed limit and apparently its being considered. Im told it was in local press which I dont read very much. No news as of last week anyway as to how thats going.

deisemum

I remember a certain councillor on wlr defending why it's 60 speed limit yet I've seen the same woman exceeding the speed limit on the Dunmore Road.

nkay1985

Sully wrote: »

Speaking of which, I was told that the Young Fine Gael branch in Waterford did a big campaign to increase the speed limit and apparently its being considered. Im told it was in local press which I dont read very much. No news as of last week anyway as to how thats going.

Haven't heard about that but I know it was raised when the road first opened. It was put to the planners or whoever decides these things by the council, or council members, and I think they said it was from national guidelines and that they'd leave themselves open to big problems if they were to change it. I'm completely open to being proved wrong on this though!

deisemum wrote: »

I remember a certain councillor on wlr defending why it's 60 speed limit yet I've seen the same woman exceeding the speed limit on the Dunmore Road.

Lol. One of two so!

Sully

nkay1985 wrote: »

Haven't heard about that but I know it was raised when the road first opened. It was put to the planners or whoever decides these things by the council, or council members, and I think they said it was from national guidelines and that they'd leave themselves open to big problems if they were to change it. I'm completely open to being proved wrong on this though!

Sure if I see the person who said it to me, ill ask exactly what they did and what the results were.

honeybadger

Sully wrote: »

Speaking of which, I was told that the Young Fine Gael branch in Waterford did a big campaign to increase the speed limit and apparently its being considered. Im told it was in local press which I dont read very much. No news as of last week anyway as to how thats going ((( if only we all lived in the real world tho init haha

Sully

honeybadger wrote: »

( if only we all lived in the real world tho init haha

What?

honeybadger

do ya tink fg learner permits are going to last haha it makes sense like but enda hasnt got the cattle prod jus yet and even with the powers that be we wnt have culen to inspect d overal result ,,, wot kinda sistuation is dat ???

honeybadger

and i knoe off topic but if u see the gatso brick it frm a safe dstance ,them cameras have a good zoom on them now lol

deisemum

nkay1985 wrote: »

I wonder what the cops let people away with. I don't know anybody who's been done out there.

My mother in law got caught exceeding the speed limit on the outer ring road.

seanybiker

deisemum wrote: »

My mother in law got caught exceeding the speed limit on the outer ring road.

ah the mother in law. Did ya rat on her lol

mike65

honeybadger wrote: »

do ya tink fg learner permits are going to last haha it makes sense like but enda hasnt got the cattle prod jus yet and even with the powers that be we wnt have culen to inspect d overal result ,,, wotb kinda sistuation is dat ???

If I only knew what the hell you were on about....

Mossy Monk

honeybadger wrote: »

do ya tink fg learner permits are going to last haha it makes sense like but enda hasnt got the cattle prod jus yet and even with the powers that be we wnt have culen to inspect d overal result ,,, wot kinda sistuation is dat ???

honeybadger wrote: »

and i knoe off topic but if u see the gatso brick it frm a safe dstance ,them cameras have a good zoom on them now lol

Is this a new language?

longshanks

honeybadger wrote: »

1learner drivers,2 some of the roads around ya want to be mental to do 60 on them haha,3 ya have a beter survival chance of walking away at 60 than 80 unless your a pedestrian and your hit by a car and you have the reflexes of superman batman to just fluke getting out of the way ect,4 someboaady needs you in thre life,5 ur saving the planet,the list is exhaustive yeno and with this recession period were all going thru yar going to cut corners keepig the car on the road til u can nct it and in most honest straight tinking heads ya get a better heap of junk cause its cheaper in the long run of tings

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Is this a new language?

yar?? are you a pirate? is this pirate speak matey? avast ye scurvy briggands, there be treasure a harr

alpha2zulu

Travel the Kilkenny ring road most days myself and I can tell you that even with a 100kph limit on it , the traffic somehow manages to remain accident free:D

Like the Waterford ORR, the Kilkenny version is also full of roundabouts at short intervals and is only single carraigeway. The Waterford situation is a nonsense, no wonder the Govt revenue generating vans are out in force on it.

Multivan

lads i live near the 6 cross roads and every night nearly theres some amount of racing going on, on those roads ye wouldnt believe it like,

Ye can hear the engines screaming from a way off like thats near every night and im sure the guards have gotten wind of this thats prob why they were out there.

As for the speed limit while its 60 we should keep to 60, i just cant believe the amount of drivers who shoot down that road mid day, ive seen the guards out there too that past month with speed cameras over the railings like.

mike65

alpha2zulu makes the point perfectly, the two RRs are pretty much interchangable yet a 40 kp/h difference.

lassykk

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Good to see they are making sure people are not speeding on a dangerous road with a high speed limit again

you think 60kph is a high speed limit of a 4 lane road?

thank god you've no control over speed limits:rolleyes:

as mentioned below the ring road in kilkenny is 100kph and I haven't heard of any major accidents on it? Amazing that considering people can travel at a faster speed and people don't get frustrated sitting at 60kph

Boskowski

nkay1985 wrote: »

I actually don't think it's got anything to do with any of the above things. It's to do with where it's located - I think it's classed as being inside the city environs or something like that. It's like when you're going into Lemybrien or one of those places, it goes from 100/80 down to 60 for a while, then 50. Where the link road is one of the 60 zones.

I wonder what the cops let people away with. I don't know anybody who's been done out there.

I believe it's none of those. I was told - so of course this is only hearsay - by someone working for city council that it's got to with legal requirements on speed limits before and after a roundabout. Something like the last 200 or 300 metres before a roundabout have to be 60. Since that would leave only a few metres for 80 or above in the middle between roundabouts they just made the whole thing 60.

alpha2zulu

it's got to with legal requirements on speed limits before and after a roundabout. Something like the last 200 or 300 metres before a roundabout have to be 60

I doubt thats the case, once again I'd point you to the Kilkenny example, 100kph throughout the Ring Road, roundabouts included. Funnily enough Ive never spotted Garda revenue collection on the KK ring road aside from tax/insurance checks...

The only other difference is how Kilkenny county council still have some cop on and common sense, something that seems to be missing from the equation when it comes to Waterford city council.

By the way, Cork county council managed to up the N25 dual carraigeway speed limit to 120kph even though its not a Motorway so to say that Waterford city council have their hands tied in regard to setting speed limits would appear to be a nonsense. As far as I can see if the will is there something can be done about it.

Also it may be hearsay but at the time of opening, i heard rumours that the low limit was in place in order to reduce wear and tear on the surface which apparently in places is not quite up to the job.

wellbutty

The van was on the realigned old Kilmeaden Road at lunchtime, I was caught anyway...........again :mad:

south

they must be camping up there at the moment. they were parked in the same place saturday.

Keith Winters

Sully wrote: »

Speaking of which, I was told that the Young Fine Gael branch in Waterford did a big campaign to increase the speed limit and apparently its being considered. Im told it was in local press which I dont read very much. No news as of last week anyway as to how thats going.

Yeah we've been doing a fairly long-drawn campaign, with what has to be considered limited success.

The Waterford branch of Young Fine Gael is currently preparing to launch a campaign to increase the speed limit of the Waterford outer-ring road from a pedestrian 60km per hour to 80km per hour.
Given the size and straightness of the road, the current speed restriction seems utterly unfair. Since the introduction of the metric system in 2005, National primary roads were set at 100km per hour and regional roads were set at 80km per hour; so why should a new dual carriageway be subject to such a slow pace? A number of link roads off the dual carriageway have speed limits of 80km per hour and are far more dangerous, with sharp turns, hills and pot holes.
We would suggest that 80km per hour would represent a fair increase, which ensures a good level of safety to pedestrians who may wish to avail of the footpaths along the road.
Road users would be able to slow down before the roundabouts with ease.

http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2614&Itemid=9

We ran a survey at the Tesco filling station just off the road and we questioned over 200motorists asking whther they thought the suitable speed limit was 50/60/80/100 and whilst I don't have the figures to hand there was a resounding desire to see an increase to 60.
http://www.munster-express.ie/local-news/raising-outer-ring-road-speed-limit-would-be-common-sense/

You're right though the application for an increase is currently under review by the City Council but with the economic turbulence and the Glass etc. trivialities like this tend to be shoved into the back burner which is only proper order. The City Coucil retains the power to set the speed limit for the road and following a presentation by our Chair John Cummins to the Transport Committee and with the go-ahead of the engineer there seems to be a general concensus that a common sense approach should be taken. Cllr Tom Cunningham expressed that this is one of the competancies the local authority still enjoys so they should take a realistic approach to the situation.

We have however encountered serious opposition from the Gardai who essentially patronised us and asked us "to use [our] good office and that of other young political parties to use their influence and to campaign to have young people slow down and drive within their capabilities."

The Divisional traffic inspector did give us reasons for wanting to retain the speed limit but I'm not sure if it would be permissable for me to post the letter here. It has nothing to do with anything mentioned above but rather the simple fact that they believe the road can only handle 60 save 2 stretches where 80 may be ok, but in any event they were looking at the road as a whole.

I find that arguement to be moot in all honesty. The reality is there are numerous roads that come off the dual-carriage way that have speeds of 80 and even 100 in one instance. These roads are also barely able to handle 2 cars pass each other safely and have extremely dangerous bends.

I'll try find out tommorrow if there's any chance of a vote on the issue soon.

Flyer1

Gatso van was on the airport road the other day, collecting like goodo again. Oddly at the same time there was a garda squad car down the road with the gun out the window, just in case the van didn't get you. Must be no money left in the kitty for the gardai so they're on the rounds.

seanybiker

Multivan wrote: »

As for the speed limit while its 60 we should keep to 60, i just cant believe the amount of drivers who shoot down that road mid day, ive seen the guards out there too that past month with speed cameras over the railings like.

I dont use the road at all meself . Well the odd time but i try not to. First few times i was on it I couldnt stop speeding. 100+ mph in
the afternoon was a tad much. That was ages back. Temptation to speed is to high. Well is for me anyways. Ill stick with the old and boring roads before i kill meself lol

Keith Winters

seanybiker wrote: »

I dont use the road at all meself . Well the odd time but i try not to. First few times i was on it I couldnt stop speeding. 100+ mph in
the afternoon was a tad much. That was ages back. Temptation to speed is to high. Well is for me anyways. Ill stick with the old and boring roads before i kill meself lol

Well if you're doing 100mph anywhere you deserve to get caught.

Kotek Besar

mike65 wrote: »

Raise the speed limit to 80!

My satnav says the speed limit on the bypass is 120km. I was pulled for doing 70+ on that road recently.

My defence about the satnav was weak, I accept. But still, 60km on a dual carriageway is a joke.

Sully

benifa wrote: »

My satnav says the speed limit on the bypass is 120km. I was pulled for doing 70+ on that road recently.

My defence about the satnav was weak, I accept. But still, 60km on a dual carriageway is a joke.

What did the cop say?

Kotek Besar

Sully wrote: »

What did the cop say?

He said next time look at the signs and not the sat nav if you want to know the speed limit, which was a fair point, in fairness.

Stan Nangle

realcam wrote: »

I believe it's none of those. I was told - so of course this is only hearsay - by someone working for city council that it's got to with legal requirements on speed limits before and after a roundabout. Something like the last 200 or 300 metres before a roundabout have to be 60. Since that would leave only a few metres for 80 or above in the middle between roundabouts they just made the whole thing 60.

That's total rubbish, as are all the other excuses we hear from the City Council. I've been told that it is because it is an urban road (3 odd miles through open Countryside!) and that it has a design speed of 70km/h (maybe near the golf club).

The real story, as far as I can ascertain, is that Waterford City Council have a policy not to have any speed limits over 60km/h in the area under their control.

Naturally, the Gardai love this!

The comparison with Kilkenny is a good one. That is a single carriageway, with a lot of urban traffic, lots of pedestrians on the hard shoulder, and much busier junctions. I spoke to a KK Councillor who told me that the only recurring problem they have is with cyclists getting clipped on the roundabouts. That wouldn't be a problem on the ORR - if cyclists would only use the ****** cycle path and not try to mix it with the traffic!

What we need is standardisation of speed limits throughout the Country, and not the current situation where roads engineers in every local authority get to make up the rules themselves, and feed gullible Councillors a line of BS to get them to implement the changes - Joe Kelly was on WLR a couple of years ago saying that the Councillors could be sued if they voted for a higher limit. Total codswallop!

I've written a piece on the topic of standardisation of speed limits on my website if anyone wants more detail on the topic.

meldrew

Easy knowing local elections are on the way this thread is like a party political broadcast!

seanybiker

Keith Winters wrote: »

Well if you're doing 100mph anywhere you deserve to get caught.

I know yeah thats why i stay away from there. Its to tempting

mike65

alpha2zulu wrote: »

I
Also it may be hearsay but at the time of opening, i heard rumours that the low limit was in place in order to reduce wear and tear on the surface which apparently in places is not quite up to the job.

This could be true, the top surface is a disgrace, it was rough and ready from day one.

spartacus93

Van in Ferrybank again, by Jurys, tonight @ 10:20ish

JMcL

Keith Winters wrote: »

Cllr Tom Cunningham expressed that this is one of the competancies the local authority still enjoys so they should take a realistic approach to the situation.

Gawd almighty, so the city council is on a power trip. You can just see the movie "Bwahaha Batman, you can take away my right to control a landfill, but I will have my revenge. You WILL be forced to drive your batmobile at 37mph on a dual carraigeway, and my forces of darkness will see to that"

We have however encountered serious opposition from the Gardai who essentially patronised us and asked us "to use [our] good office and that of other young political parties to use their influence and to campaign to have young people slow down and drive within their capabilities."

Utterly invalid argument on the guards part. KK ring road has already been mentioned several times. As soon as these "young people" leave at any of the roundabouts, they're immediately presented with for the most part boreens with 80kph speed limits where they can legally kill themselves. They should be demanding more stringent driver training, whereby NOBODY is allowed on the road until they've had sufficient training from a properly qualified instructor, just like every other country in the EU.

The standard of driving from large numbers of Irish people of all ages is frankly appalling, and belies the "training" that they'll have received to typically drive at 50kph in an urban area to satisfy a small number of test criteria. Forcing everybody to drive at a snails pace on the one piece of decent road in the entire bloody county is not the solution.

alpha2zulu

Gatso van also been spotted in the 50kph zone by Sheridans on the Cork Rd.

Sully

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Gatso van also been spotted in the 50kph zone by Sheridans on the Cork Rd.

Cant say I noticed it, was there a little while ago!

Typewriter

Sure everyone drives at 80 anyway (bar a few micra's). Ive driven behind garda cars doing 80 on it.

Somebody should go out there at night and stick a load of '80' stickers over the existing '60' ones, sure everybody would just accept it as the council's doing.

Gasto? Are we speaking in some sort of secret code. :rolleyes: